The Pakistan national cricket team, led by new ODI captain Azhar Ali, arrived in the capital Monday noon to play a full-fledged series of three OD1’s, one T20 and two Test matches against the Bengal Tigers. The team reached at the Shahjalal International Airport by a PIA flight around 12:10pm. The remaining cricketers of the Pakistan team, selected for Test and T20 only, will join the team later on. Ahead of their Bangladesh campaign with three-match ODI series on April 17, 19 and 22 at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium (SBNCS) in Mirpur, touring Pakistan will play a one-day practice match against BCB Eleven on Monday (Apr 15) at Khan Saheb Osman Ali Stadium in Fatullah. The lone T20 match will be held on April 24, after which the first Test match between the two teams will begin April 28 at the Sheikh Abu Naser Stadium, Khulna. The teams will move back to Dhaka for the second Test match, that will start on May 6 at SBNCS in Mirpur. Pakistan made one change to their ODI squad dropping pacer Sohail Khan for back-from-injury Junaid Khan, selected for Test and T20 match. Earlier, Bangladesh Cricket Board announced a 14-member squad for the first two matches of the three match ODI series against Pakistan including new batting face Rony Talukder and medium-pacer Abdul Hasan after dropping World cup playing Imrul Kayes and Taijul Islam. Kayes played three matches in the World Cup against India, New Zealand and England for scores of 5, 2 and 2 respectively while left-arm spinner Taijul played only against New Zealand, bagging figures of 0 for 58 Rony Talukdar has been included in the squad as a leading scorer in the Dhaka Premier Division League with 714 runs at an average score of 51, including two centuries and three half-centuries. Bangladesh Squad: Tamim Iqbal, Rony Talakdar, Soumya Sarker, Mominul Hoque, Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mahmud Ullah, Nasir Hossain, Shabbir Rahaman, Mashrafe Bin Mortaza (Captain), Taskin Ahmed, Abul Hasan Raju, Rubel Hossain and Arafat Sunny. Meanwhile, BCB announced another 14-member BCB eleven for lone one-day practice match against Pakistan to be held at Khan Saheb Osman Ali Stadium in Fatullah on April 15. Bangladesh squad for one-day practice match: Imrul Kayes, Rony Talukdar, Liton Kumar Das, Mominul Hoque, Shuvagata Hom Chowdhury, Shohag Gazi, Al-Amin Hossain, Nasir Hossain (Captain), Shabbir Rahaman, Zubaer Hossain, Taijul Islam, Abul Hasan Raju, Muktar Ali and Mohammad Shahid. — Dhaka Apr 13 (UNB)
