Bangladesh to host Zimbabwe for five T20Is in May

Bangladesh will host Zimbabwe for a five-match T20I series in May, with one eye on the 2024 T20 World Cup.

This comes days after the BCB announced that the team will be touring the USA for three T20Is in May, ahead of showpiece event that will be co-hosted by the USA and the West Indies from June 1.

The first three T20Is, from May 3, will be played in Chattogram, while the last two matches will be held in Dhaka, reports ESPNcricinfo.

The BCB also said in a release that the two-match Test series between Zimbabwe and Bangladesh which was originally scheduled for this year will now be played in 2025. It will be the first Test series between the sides since 2018.

The last time the two teams played against each other in a bilateral T20I series was in July 2022 in Harare, when Zimbabwe defeated Bangladesh 2-1. Overall, Bangladesh hold a 13-7 win-loss ratio against Zimbabwe in the shortest format.

Bangladesh will start their T20 World Cup campaign on June 8 against Sri Lanka scheduled in Dallas. They are part of Group D along with Nepal, Netherlands, South Africa and Sri Lanka.

Zimbabwe failed to qualify for the 2024 T20 World Cup, with Uganda and Namibia advancing from the Africa leg of qualifiers for the 20-team event. They had also failed to make the cut for the 2019 and 2023 ODI World Cups, but will be part of the 2027 ODI World Cup as co-hosts.