Australia to play five T20Is against Bangladesh in August.
Bangladesh opener Liton Das is all set to miss the upcoming five-match T20I series against Australia at home after he left bio-bubble in Zimbabwe on Monday (July 26) evening due to personal reasons.
He had already missed the last two T20Is of the victorious series 2-1 against Zimbabwe due to a thigh injury and now will be unavailable for the upcoming five-match T20I series against Australia as well.
Bangladesh Cricket Board's (BCB) cricket operations chairman Akram Khan confirmed that Liton Das is expected to fly back soon from Zimbabwe to be with his ailing family member at home, which means the opener will be unable to join the Bangladesh team’s bio-bubble in Dhaka for the Australia series.
Before Liton, Mushfiqur Rahim had opted to leave the Zimbabwe tour midway to be with his sick parents and missed the deadline of completing 10-day mandatory quarantine, which meant he won't take part in the home series against Australia.
Tamim Iqbal isn't also available for the Australia series due to his knee rehabilitation which is likely to keep him out for at least two months.
Akram Khan said on Monday: “Liton is out of the series. He is expected to return home soon as he wants to be there for the family member who is sick and we can't really do anything if someone wants to be with his ailing family members.”
He added, “We initially had a 20-man squad but after Tamim Iqbal and Mushfiqur Rahim had to pull out, Liton is also not in the squad. We are down to 17 players. The quarantine in Dhaka started on July 20, so we can only have the players who are traveling back from Zimbabwe on July 28.”
Notably, Bangladesh added Taijul Islam, Rubel Hossain, Mohammad Mithun, and Mosaddek Hossain, who were part of the ODI squad in Zimbabwe to replace the missing players in the T20I squad for the T20I series against Australia starting on August 3 at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium.
Bangladesh T20I squad:
Mahmudullah (capt), Shakib Al Hasan, Liton Das, Nurul Hasan (wk), Taskin Ahmed, Shoriful Islam, Taijul Islam, Mohammad Naim, Mohammad Saifuddin, Mustafizur Rahman, Afif Hossain, Rubel Hossain, Mohammad Mithun, Mosaddek Hossain, Soumya Sarkar, Shamim Hossain, Nasum Ahmed, Mahedi Hasan.
(With ESPNCricinfo/Cricbuzz Inputs)