Bangladesh pacer Mustafizur Rahman came up with a cheeky post before landing in Pakistan for the upcoming tour. The left-arm pacer wrote: “Heading to Pakistan. Remember us in your prayers. #PAKvBAN”. It is to be noted that Pakistan isn’t considered to be a safe country and international teams have been reluctant to travel there since the terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan team in 2009.
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Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) was also reluctant to send its team there but the two boards decided to play series in two phases. In the first leg, the visiting team will play three T20Is and one Test match. They will return home due to PSL and will again fly to Pakistan in April for one ODI and second Test of the series.
Heading to Pakistan. Remember us in your prayers. #PAKvBAN pic.twitter.com/7l85XfFUWM
— Mustafizur Rahman (@Mustafiz90) January 22, 2020
Bangladesh have a strong line-up and Mushfiqur Rahim was the only player who withdrew from the tour. The former Bangladesh captain stated that his family didn’t want him to tour the country.
He had also revealed that he rejected an offer to play Pakistan Super League since the tournament will be played in Pakistan. Apart from Rahim, Bangladesh’s coaches Neil McKenzie and Ryan Cook also withdrew from the tour.
Many other players were expected to back out but that didn’t happen. Bangladesh will be the second international team that Pakistan will host after World Cup 2019. They recently hosted Sri Lanka in a full-fledged series in two phases. The visitors missed out on services of 10 regular players for ODIs and T20Is but they returned for two Test matches.
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For the first time, PCB has also announced that the board will be hosting compete season of PSL in Pakistan. It will be for the first time since the inception of the league that the complete tournament will be played in the country. Pakistan has hosted few PSL matches in past.
The Bangladesh tour of Pakistan kicks off January 24 with the first T20I to be played at Gadaffi Stadium, Lahore.