Former South African batter Nic Pothas has been appointed as the Assistant Coach of the Bangladesh cricket team. The 49-year-old has signed a two-year agreement with the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) and will start his new role next month during the three-match ODI series against Ireland in the United Kingdom. The series is a part of the ODI World Cup Super League. Pothas has an extensive coaching career spanning over a decade, during which he served as the head coach of the West Indies (2018-2019) and Sri Lanka (2017-2018) cricket teams. Read More: BCB announces search for new assistant coach for Tigers He also worked as an assistant coach and fielding coach for the West Indies and was the lead fielding coach for Sri Lanka. Before joining Bangladesh, Pothas was the wicketkeeping coach of Hampshire County Cricket Club. As a right-handed batsman during his playing days, Pothas appeared in three ODIs for South Africa and made over sixteen thousand First-class and List-A runs. Pothas expressed his excitement about his new role, saying, "I am honoured to commit to the Bangladesh National Team. The depth and array of talent running through Bangladesh is exceptional, and I believe we have some exciting years ahead of us. Read More: Chandika Hathurasingha takes over as head coach of Bangladesh cricket 

British High Commission in Dhaka has hosted a reception to celebrate the England men’s cricket team’s visit to Bangladesh and the upcoming ODI and T20I cricket series between England and Bangladesh. Players from both Bangladesh and England cricket teams, along with technical and coaching staff attended the reception. British Deputy High Commissioner Javed Patel welcomed guests. He said, “I am delighted to see the England cricket team, as reigning ODI and T20I world champions, visiting Bangladesh in 2023 for what I know will be an exciting series."    

Tamim Iqbal's first press conference in months ahead of a crucial ODI series against England at home, which is also part of the World Cup Super League, was expected to focus on cricket. However, the captain ended up addressing his relationship with teammate Shakib Al Hasan, who leads Bangladesh in Tests and T20Is. Prior to Tamim's media appearance on Sunday, the president of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB), Nazmul Hasan, spoke openly about the "unhealthy state" of Bangladesh's dressing room, as he indicated, due to the "strained" relationship between Tamim and Shakib. Read more: England Men's Cricket Team Arrives Dhaka for White Ball Series Tamim did not deny the authenticity of the speculation and refrained from playing down the issue, but emphasized that on-field performance takes priority over off-field issues. “When Shakib and I step onto the field wearing the Bangladesh jersey, nothing else holds importance for us. Our sole focus is to represent Bangladesh to the best of our abilities and play with utmost dedication,” he said.  The BCB president had attempted to resolve the "dispute" between the two players but found it challenging, he said in the interview with Cricbuzz, a cricket website based in India. There are also rumors of factions emerging in the dressing room centered around Shakib and Tamim, which Tamim denied experiencing before. “I’ve been playing for the Bangladesh team for the last 16 years, and this grouping thing comes up when the Bangladesh team fail to live up to the expectations,” Tamim said. Read more: Will Jacks added to England squad to replace injured Tom Abell “I've heard about rumors of grouping culture in the past, but I have never experienced it in the dressing room. As I was out of the national team for the last six months, I am not aware of any recent emergence of such culture,” he added.  The Bangladesh ODI captain responded diplomatically to the repetitive questions, stating that he and Shakib are willing to help each other when needed, particularly in terms of their captaincy roles. Tamim's main priority remains to perform well for Bangladesh and lead the team to success. “This is a special series, and we are focusing to do well,” Tamim replied to one of a few questions about cricket.    

Shakib Al Hasan has blamed the batting failure for the defeat against Pakistan in today’s match that ended Bangladesh’s journey in the T20 World Cup 2022. However, the Bangladesh captain believes this was his side's best T20 World Cup performance . Read more: T20 World Cup: Bangladesh end campaign with another dismal batting display "At the halfway stage, we were 70 for 1." "We wanted to get somewhere around 145-150; that would have been a reasonable total on that pitch," the Bangladesh captain said after the match. "We could have done better." But having said that, with the new guys coming in and the changes, this is the best we could expect. On my own performance – I could have done better. "As long as I’m fit and performing, I would love to play," Shakib added. Read more: T20 World Cup: Was the LBW call against Shakib correct? He also added that it was Bangladesh’s best T20 World Cup performance so far, with the wins against the Netherlands and Zimbabwe. Before this, Bangladesh had never won two matches in the main draw of the T20 World Cups.

One of the main reasons for playing international series heading to the T20 World Cup 2022 is to find the right balance in the playing XI. However, the Bangladesh players' tri-nation series performances have been underwhelming. The concern of whether the Bangladeshi team has lived up to expectations in its preparatory matches still remains. How have the players performed in the preparatory international fixtures? The Bangladesh T20I team competed in a two-match series against the host United Arab Emirates in September following a lackluster performance at the Asia Cup 2022. The Tigers defeated the weak UAE team comfortably, but most of the players' performances fell short of expectations. Read: Tri-Series: As Bangladesh suffer another defeat, New Zealand march to final Bangladesh’s real test was awaiting in the New Zealand tri-nation series, and the worry has been confirmed once the series got underway. The team appears to lack a game plan; the batters have made bad shot choices and have approached the game with little effort; and the bowling unit hasn't been efficient enough on New Zealand's fast track. Taskin Ahmed in bowling and Shakib Al Hasan in batting have shown good intentions among the players. Taskin’s accuracy, pace, and economy rates have all been satisfactory. He has picked up 2 wickets with an economy rate of 7.37 in 2 matches of the tri-nation series. Shakib, on the other hand, has been struggling to find his rhythm with the ball. He has yet to earn a wicket and has an economy rate of 9 in two outings. However, Shakib’s 70 off 44 balls against New Zealand on Wednesday was encouraging despite Bangladesh losing the contest handsomely by 48 runs. Among the others, none has had a particularly impressive performance in the series to date. Afif Hossain and Litton Das are considered special talents. Both had a couple of good starts but couldn’t prolong their innings. What’s more annoying is that after spending some time in the middle, they repeatedly make mistakes which cost their wickets. Yasir Ali played a hard-hitting knock in the death overs against Pakistan in the series opener, which impressed many. Bangladesh can consider him to be sent up in the batting order. In bowling, spinners Nasum Ahmed and Mehidy Hasan Miraz have maintained good economy rates, but they may not be go-to bowlers during the main event. The faster bowlers are expected to do well on fast bouncy wickets, but except for Taskin, all have failed to meet the expectations. Bangladesh’s team performance hasn’t been up to the mark in this tri-nation series. Bowlers' main concern has been about not giving away too many runs, avoiding focusing more on picking up wickets. There is no specific strategy for batting. The batters have tried to play big shots whenever the asking rates go up. Everyone needs a specific role in batting in order to have the desired outcome from a contest. It seems every batter in Bangladesh tries, but none of them succeed. Read: T20 World Cup 2022: Five potential candidates for most sixes

Bangladesh national cricket team returned home on Saturday after their disastrous performance in the Asia Cup T20 in the UAE. Bangladesh played two matches in the event in Group B and lost both matches against Afghanistan and Sri Lanka. Batters failed in the match against Afghanistan while bowlers failed to defend a total of more than 180 against Sri Lanka. Nearly all the senior players of the Bangladesh team failed to prove their mettle. Mahmudullah Riyad and Mushfiqur Rahim were like their shadows in the Asia Cup. In contrast, Afif Hossain, Mosaddek Hossain Saikat, and Mehidy Hasan Miraz have done well in their respective roles, but that was not enough to conceal Bangladesh’s inefficiency in the T20 format. Also read: Zimbabwe register historic win vs Australia Bangladesh’s next assignment is to play in the ICC T20 World Cup in Australia. Before the World Cup, the Tigers will have a chance to prepare well in New Zealand where they are scheduled to play a tri-series involving the hosts New Zealand and one more team. The Bangladesh T20 World Cup team will start their preparation at home on September 12 in Dhaka. The T20 World Cup will begin on October 16 with the matches of the initial round between Sri Lanka and Namibia, and the United Arab Emirates and the Netherlands. Bangladesh will play directly at the Super 12s stage. The first match for Bangladesh is on October 24 against the runners-up of the Group A of the initial round. Also read: Asia Cup 2022: Super 4 fixtures, favourites to advance to the final While the top eight teams of the T20 Ranking will directly play at the Super 12s, eight other teams will fight in the initial round to qualify for the Super 12s. Along with Test playing nations— Sri Lanka, West Indies and Zimbabwe and Ireland, Namibia, Netherlands, United Arab Emirates and Scotland will take part in the initial round of the T20 World Cup. Four teams from this round will qualify for the Super 12s. Bangladesh are in the Group 2 of the Super 12s where they have India, Pakistan and South Africa along with two teams from the initial round. In Group 1, Afghanistan, Australia, England and New Zealand will take on each other along with two other teams from the first phase.

Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has named top order batter Afif Hossain as the vice captain of Bangladesh cricket team for the Asia Cup 2022 now underway in the UAE. The 22-year old left-hander has played 47 T20 internationals for Bangladesh since making his debut in February 2018. This is the first time when Afif is taking a leadership role in the Bangladesh team. He was among the best players in the world during his U19 cricketing days. Read:Asia Cup: Afghanistan make flying start beating Sri Lanka by 8 wickets in opener Shakib Al Hasan is set to lead Bangladesh in the Asia Cup. He was handed the captaincy just before the Asia Cup. During the tour of Zimbabwe, Bangladesh's T20 captain was Nurul Hasan Sohan. Ho suffered an injury on his finger that ruled him out of the Asia Cup too. Bangladesh’s Asia Cup will begin with the match against Afghanistan on August 30. In the second match, Bangladesh will take on Sri Lanka who lost their first match to Afghanistan by eight wickets on the opening day Saturday.

The Bangladesh cricket team left Dhaka on Tuesday afternoon for the UAE to play this year’s Asia Cup starting from August 27.  While most of the members of the Bangladesh cricket team took the flight on Tuesday, Taskin Ahmed and Anamul Haque Bijoy have to fly later. They are trapped in a visa-related issue.  A BCB official said both of them are expected to take a flight to the UAE on Wednesday.  A day before flying to the UAE, Shakib Al Hasan, the Bangladesh T20 captain, said they are not expecting a lot from this year’s Asia Cup. Bangladesh have been failing to meet the expectation in this format of cricket for the last few years.  Read:Asia Cup squad: Md Naim called up on eve of departure Along with Bangladesh, five more teams are participating in Asia Cup which will be played in the T20 format for the second time.  The first Asia Cup T20 was held in Bangladesh in 2016 when the hosts ended up as runners-up and India took the title in Dhaka.  In their first match, Bangladesh will take on Afghanistan, and in the second, Bangladesh will play against Sri Lanka.  “If we display some good cricket in the Asia Cup than we have done over the last few years, it would be an achievement,” Shakib said on Monday, in his first media conference after becoming the T20 captain recently. “We should not expect that we would make the final.” Bangladesh will not get the service of head coach Russell Domingo in the Asia Cup. For now, Domingo will be coaching the Bangladesh team in Tests and ODIs only.  The BCB has appointed former Indian cricketer Sridharan Sriram as the technical consultant for the Bangladesh T20 team. He will be the head of Bangladesh’s think-tank in the Asia Cup, Nazmul Hasan, the BCB president confirmed on Monday. 

Former national team captains Mashrafe Bin Mortaza and Mushfiqur Rahim have congratulated Nurul Hasan Sohan on becoming Bangladesh's T20 captain for the upcoming Zimbabwe tour. The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) Friday announced the squads for the tour where the Tigers will play a three-match T20I and three-match ODI series from July 30 to August 10. Sohan replaced Mahmudullah Riyad as the T20 captain. Riyad had been leading the Tigers in T20s since February 2018. He failed to guide the team to T20 victories and could not perform well with the bat in the West Indies. "Hard work is better than talent when talent refuses to work hard. Congratulations Quazi Nurul Hasan Sohan on becoming the captain of the Bangladesh T20 squad. Wish you all the luck," Mashrafe wrote on his social media profile. "Congrats to Sohan on becoming the new T20I captain for the Zimbabwe series. The young team has my full support and I strongly believe this team will do well in the upcoming series," Mushfqiur wrote on his social media page. Read: BAN vs ZIM T20I Series 2022: Nurul Hasan to lead young Bangladesh side Sohan regularly leads Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club in the Dhaka Premier Division Cricket League, a 50-over format event at the domestic level of Bangladesh. In his first assignment as the captain of Bangladesh, Sohan will have to face a tough challenge. He will not get the services of Shakib Al Hasan, Tamim Iqbal, Riyad and Mushfiq. Tamim recently announced his retirement from T20s. Riyad, Shakib, and Mushfiq have been rested for the T20 series. The Bangladesh team is set to travel to Zimbabwe on July 26. The T20I series will begin on July 30. The last two matches of the series will take place on July 31 and August 2. The first ODI will be played on August 5, and the other two matches on August 7 and 10. Mushfiq will be part of the ODI team.   The ODI series of this tour is not part of the ICC World Cup Super League.

Star allrounder Shakib Al Hasan has been re-appointed as the Test captain of the Bangladesh cricket team. He will now take over the charge from Mominul Haque who recently said he is not willing to continue in the role after the recent failure in the series against Sri Lanka at home.  While Shakib is appointed as the new captain, Liton Das, the wicketkeeper-bater will play the role of his deputy. Liton has previously led Bangladesh in T20I as an interim captain in New Zealand.  This is the second time when Shakib is set to lead the Tigers in Tests. In his first tenure, he led Bangladesh in 14 Tests and won three matches with 11 defeats.  Also read: Mominul reluctant to continue as Test captain; informs BCB The allrounder also led Bangladesh in 71 limited-over matches.  Shakib was removed from the captaincy in 2019 when he was banned for two years, with one year suspension, due to failing to report corrupt approaches made to him. After that, the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) had appointed Mominul as the captain of Test team.  Also read:Cricketer Mominul on verge of losing captaincy