Sport
Bangladesh won’t take Afghanistan lightly: chief selector
As Afghanistan are set to face Bangladesh in an all-format tour, Bangladesh’s chief selector has said that they are currently giving their full focus on the series and are planning to set up teams for it.
“We’re not thinking about what is being talked outside. The World Cup is still four months away. We have series against Afghanistan and we are thinking of these back-to-back series,” Minhaju Abedin said, Bangladesh’s New Age newspaper reported.
“We will be hosting Afghanistan in all three formats so we are now organizing our teams for that. I think we are the only Test-playing side who are discussing the World Cup now. We have to make a team for the World Cup keeping the fitness and performance of the players in mind,” he said.
The former national captain also informed that they will finalise the squads for Afghanistan series by next week and the players will start their preparation for that series on May 29.
“We are now preparing the squad for the Afghanistan series and we are hopeful to form the squads and inform the BCB next week. The practice session will start on 29th [May],” he said, adding that there had been no discussion regarding resting all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan in the series.
“We didn’t have any discussion about it. He [Shakib] will need six-week time for recovery as there was a fracture. He might miss the Test series. But as there is a long gap before the ODI series, I expect him to return to the ODI squad,” said Minhajul.
Meanwhile, Minhajul also denied to make any experiment against Afghanistan in the upcoming series and was hopeful to field the best possible side.
Bangladesh don’t have a good record against the Afghans, especially in the longer format, as they lost the only Test between the two sides by a massive 224-run margin in Chattogram in 2019.
“We won’t do any experiments. Afghanistan are a very good side. We had a bad experiment against them as we lost the last Test. We won’t take them lightly. We will try to name the best possible side against Afghanistan,” he concluded.
Afghanistan will play the one-off Test in Dhaka from June 14 to 18, after which they will leave for India. They will return to Bangladesh on July 1 to play three ODIs in Chattogram from July 5 to 11.
They will also play two T20Is in Sylhet on July 14 and 16, which will conclude the series.
Skipper Faf du Plessis and Virat Kohli helped Royal Challengers Bengaluru hammer Gujarat Titans by four wickets for their third successive IPL win on Saturday.
Chasing a modest 148 for victory, Du Plessis, who hit 64, and Kohli, who made 42, laid the foundations with a stand of 92 in 35 balls as the target was achieved with 6.2 overs to spare at Bengaluru’s M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, AFP reported.
Du Plessis’ departure triggered a collapse as Gujarat hit back with wickets from Joshua Little and Noor Ahmad to have the opposition in trouble at 117-6 when Kohli was dismissed.
Wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik, who hit 21, and Swapnil Singh, who made 15, made sure there was no more drama as they steered the team home in an unbeaten stand of 35.
Bowlers set up victory after pace spearhead Mohammed Siraj removed the openers early and Gujarat lost regular wickets to be bowled out for 147 in 19.3 overs.
It was Bengaluru’s fourth win and third on the bounce in 11 matches as they jumped from the bottom of the table to seventh and keep their slim play-off hopes alive.
Gujarat’s hopes are also hanging by a thread as they slumped to their seventh loss in 11 matches.
Kohli, who reclaimed the top batting spot with 542 runs, came out roaring as he hit Mohit Sharma for two sixes in the opening over of the chase and Du Plessis soon joined in and moved ahead to raise his fifty in 18 balls.
The South African veteran smashed 10 fours and three sixes in his 23-ball blitz before being dismissed by Ireland left-arm quick Little.
Little took two more wickets including Glenn Maxwell for four as Bengaluru slipped to 107-4.
Little sent back Cameron Green and then Noor’s left-arm wrist spin silenced the home crowd when he had Kohli caught behind, but the hosts had the last laugh when Singh hit the winning six.
Earlier put into bat, Gujarat went three down for 19 inside six over before big-hitter Shahrukh Khan, who top-scored with 37, stood strong in a 61-run stand with David Miller, who hit 30 off 20 balls.
Left-handed Rahul Tewatia hit a 21-ball 35 and put on another key stand with Rashid Khan to add respect to the total.
In the continuation of Afghanistan Champions League (ACL) tournaments, Sarsabz Yashlar FC beat Khadim FC 2-1 in the 29th match of this league.
Shokrullah Kohi was named man of the match for Sarsabz Yashlar.
In the 30th exciting match, Sorkh Poshan Khafi thrashed Istiqlal Kabul FC 6-0.
Omid Rajabi secured three goals against Istiqlal Kabul and was named man of the match.
In Sunday’s matches, Mawj Sahil FC will face Adalat Farah FC at 1:00pm and Abu Muslim Farah FC will face Maiwand FC at 3:30 p.m.
The matches are broadcast live on Ariana Television.
Aino Mina defeated Adalat Farah 2-1 in the 27th match of Afghanistan Champions League (ACL) in Kabul on Friday. In the other game of the day, Khorasan Faryab beat Jawanan Wahedi with the same result.
In the first game of the day, the first goal was scored by Abdul Ali Wahedi from Adalat Farah, before Ahmad Nabi Moqadas and Khalil Ahmad Badushah scored for Aino Mina.
In the 28th match of the tournament, Hayatullah Salimi netted twice for Khurasan. Farzad Barakzai scored Jawanan Wahedi’s only goal.
In Saturday’s matches, Sarsabz Yashlar will face Khadim at 1:00 p.m. and Sorkh Poshan Khafi will face Istiqlal Kabul at 3:30 p.m.
The matches are broadcast live on Ariana Television.
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