Bangladesh will host a T20I series between Asia XI and World XI in March to celebrate the 100th birth anniversary of the father of their nation, ‘Bangabandhu’ Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. The series has been granted official T20I status by the ICC and the BCCI has confirmed sending five players for the same.
Meanwhile, fans’ dream of seeing Indian and Pakistan players playing in the same XI might not come true, as there are reports that no Pakistan player has been invited to join the Asia XI team, which will be comprised of Indian, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan and possibly Afghanistani players. The two-matches of the series will be played on March 18 and March 21, 2020, in Dhaka.
BCCI yet to confirm the names
Though the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has requested the crème of the Indian players in MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja and Bhuvneshwar Kumar to be sent for the historic series; the BCCI is yet to confirm on the names of the five players who will participate in the series.
The BCCI joint secretary Jayesh George has confirmed that the final call on the players’ names will be taken by Sourav Ganguly. “Our board has decided to send five players. It has been left to the BCCI president (Sourav Ganguly) to decide which five players would go to Bangladesh,” George was quoted as saying by bdcrictime.com.
BCB CEO Nizamuddin Chaudhary also talked about the two-match series and added that the board had requested all the Asian countries to send players based on their availability. But George mentioned that no Pakistan cricketer will be invited as per messages received by the BCCI.
“What we are aware of is that there will be no Pakistan players in the Asia XI. That is what the message is, so, there is no question of both countries coming together or picking one over the other,” he was quoted as saying by The Times of India.
