Hours after receiving instructions from the nation’s sports ministry to try to move the team’s league matches from India to Sri Lanka, the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) on Sunday unveiled a 15-man squad with Litton Das as captain for the T20 World Cup next month.
Following Mustafizur Rahman’s removal from the IPL on BCCI orders, the BCB’s sports ministry has instructed it to look at moving the nation’s T20 World Cup league matches from India to Sri Lanka due to “concerns about players’ safety.”
Bangladesh’s four league games are against the West Indies on February 7, Italy on February 9, England on February 14 in Kolkata, and Nepal on February 17 in Mumbai.
India and Sri Lanka will co-host the T20 showpiece from February 7 to March 8.
While pacer Taskin Ahmed rejoined the team after missing the most recent Ireland series, Das remained captain. In terms of pace, Ahmed will collaborate with Rahman, who was also predictably included in the squad.
“The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has announced the national squad for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026, to be jointly hosted by India and Sri Lanka from 7 February to 8 March,” the BCB said on ‘X’.
Rahman, who was purchased for Rs 9.20 crore during a bidding war at last month’s auctions in Abu Dhabi, was released on Saturday by Shah Rukh Khan’s co-owned IPL team Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in accordance with the BCCI’s directive.
As a result, Asif Nazrul, a government advisor to Bangladesh, gave the BCB instructions to request that the Jay Shah-led ICC move Bangladesh’s four league matches to Sri Lanka.
With only one month remaining in the competition, a BCCI insider maintained that the change is nearly unthinkable. The BCCI stated that the action was prompted by what has been going on everywhere, even though it did not specifically mention the present political climate in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh squad: Litton Das (Capt.), Mohammed Saif Hassan (vice-captain), Tanzid Hasan, Mohammad Parvez Hossain Emon, Tawhid Hridoy, Shamim Hossain, Qazi Nurul Hasan Sohan, Shak Mahedi Hasan, Rishad Hossain, Nasum Ahmed, Mustafizur Rahman, Tanzim Hasan Sakib, Taskin Ahmed, Md Shaifuddin, Shoriful Islam
