Tamim Iqbal has returned to the Bangladesh T20I side for series against Pakistan, Bangladesh Cricket Board announced on Saturday (January 18). Hasan Mahmud, the 20-year-old pacer, has earned his maiden call-up with Rubel Hossain also making a comeback for the first leg of the three-part tour of Pakistan.
Tamim hasn’t played international cricket since last year’s World Cup. His poor run of scores in that tournament forced him to take a break from the game. He was supposed to return for the India tour in October but pulled out because of personal reasons. Tamim, who last played a T20I in December 2018, has recovered from a groin injury and was medically cleared to feature in the Pakistan series.
Rubel has had a long break from T20I cricket with his last international game in the format coming in August 2018 against West Indies in Florida.
Mahmud has played 13 T20 games and has 10 wickets at an average of 37.9 and an economy of over nine. However, he has been fairly successful in first-class cricket (24 wickets from nine games) and List A cricket (19 wickets from 15 matches).
The first T20I will be played on January 24 while the second and third games will be held on January 25 and 27 respectively. All three games will be in Lahore before the visitors return to Pakistan for the first Test of the two-match series from February 7.
Squad: Mahmudullah (c), Tamim Iqbal, Soumya Sarkar, Moammad Naim, Najmul Hossain, Litton Das, Mohammad Mithun, Afif Hossain, Mehidy Hasan, Aminul Islam, Mustafizur Rahman, Shafiul Islam, Al-Amin Hossain, Rubel Hossain, Hasan Mahmud
