Australia to play five T20Is against Bangladesh in August

BCB operations chairman Akram Khan announced that Australia will play five T20Is instead of three when they tour Bangladesh in August ahead of the 2021 T20 World Cup. The former Bangladesh captain also revealed that they will play an additional T20I on their tour of Zimbabwe in June and have dropped one Test.

Bangladesh will not play one Test, three ODIs and as many T20Is in Zimbabwe. They are also scheduled to host New Zealand and England between August and October, just prior to the T20 World Cup, which will be held either in India or the UAE in October-November.

"As you may have known, Australia have agreed to increase their T20I series from three to five matches. It will be held over eight or nine days. We are trying to be well prepared for the World Cup T20," Akram Khan said on Tuesday (May 25).

"There were also two Tests against Zimbabwe, so we reduced it and added a T20I in its place. I am however not aware about how long the quarantine (in Zimbabwe) is going to be, but it won't be too tough."

Bangladesh have a jam-packed schedule and have no intentions of adding an extra international series after the Asia Cup was officially postponed. Bangladesh players will instead feature in the Dhaka Premier League, which is supposed to start from May 31.

"We have a pretty packed scheduled. We will have club cricket after this (Sri Lanka) series. We will go to Zimbabwe, and afterwards we have Australia and New Zealand coming up. 

"We also have to keep the cricketers' bio-bubble and quarantine in mind. It is not always good to play a lot of cricket, so we have to think about our schedule after this series."