Pakistan as a country has had fought hard to revive international cricket at home. Well, after hosting the T20I and Test series against Sri Lanka, this has further made things a bit easier for the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and government to some extent. However, the cricketing world still remembers the 2009 incident when the gruesome attack on the Lankan team bus at the Liberty Chowk in Lahore shocked one and all.
With this incident still afresh, as many as five members of supporting staff for Bangladesh team had decided to withdraw their names for the upcoming tour to Pakistan, starting later this month.
Bangladesh will fly to Pakistan to play three-match T20I series, two-match Test series and an ODI. The tour will start from 24th January with T20I series which will be followed by Test series apart from a single ODI.
The Cricket Operations Chairman of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB), Akram Khan, said that the team’s batting coach Neil McKenzie along with fielding coach, Ryan Cook has refused to travel to Pakistan.
Apart from it, the recently-appointed spin consultant of the team, Daniel Vettori hasn’t been called for this short stint. Also, the team analyst, Shrinivas Chandrasekaran, since he is an Indian national will not travel to Pakistan. Besides, the star batsman of Bangladesh Mushfiqur Rahim has already withdrawn his name for this particular tour. Thus, Mahmudullah will lead the T20 squad of Bangladesh.
“Mario broke his hand recently while team analyst will be working with the team over Skype. McKenzie and fielding coach will also not be going, while we haven’t yet confirmed on our new bowling coach,” Bangladesh media reported.
Bangladesh T20I squad for Pakistan series: Mahmudullah (C), Tamim Iqbal Khan, Soumya Sarkar, Naim Sheikh, Najmul Hossain, Litton Das, MD Mithun, Afif Hossain, Mahadi Hasan, Aminul Islam Biplob, Mustafizur Rahman, Shafiul Islam, Al-Amin Hossain, Rubel Hossain, Hasan Mahmud