Australia to tour Bangladesh only for T20Is later this year
According to the Future Tours Program, Bangladesh are also to host England for white-ball games ahead of the T20 World Cup, meaning the matches may well be arrayed as a triangular series.
Australia are set to make a belated trip to Bangladesh later this year for their first tour since 2017, ESPNcricinfo reported. But they will not play Tests as originally scheduled, rather they will play T20Is as a preparation for the upcoming T20 CWC that will take place in India.
ESPNcricinfo has confirmed discussions around the brief tour, which are the result of India hosting the global T20I event in 2021 while the 2020 edition, originally to have been hosted by Australia last year, was pushed out to 2022. According to the Future Tours Program, Bangladesh are also to host England for white-ball games ahead of the T20 World Cup, meaning the matches may well be arrayed as a triangular series.
BCB CEO Nizamuddin Chowdhury said that Australia is coming for sure and England will follow the FTP protocol. "Australia coming, that's for sure. And we have England coming as well. I can't really confirm about the tri-nation series right now," Nizamuddin said.
He also mentioned that New Zealand will be visiting Bangladesh before England and Australia.
"This was originally a part of Test Championship, but due to the busy schedule, it's not currently possible to play the matches before June. We will find ways to play Test against Australia later sometime," Nizamuddin added.
It has also been understood that any prospect of last year's postponed Test tour of Bangladesh, one of the first scheduled assignments delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, has been effectively washed away by the fact it could not be rescheduled during the remaining window for WTC series before the table is finalised in April.
Cricket Australia and the BCB have continued lengthy talks ever since the postponement of the series last April, but neither board was able to commit to a window for a Test match tour.