Australia to tour Bangladesh for five T20Is in August

Cricket Australia have agreed to play five T20Is instead of the three they were scheduled to play on their tour of Bangladesh in August, according to BCB cricket operations chairman Akram Khan.

Khan, the former captain, also revealed the BCB have dropped one Test and replaced it with an additional T20I on their tour of Zimbabwe in June. Bangladesh will now play a solitary Test followed by three ODIs and as many T20Is in Zimbabwe.

The five-match home series against Australia is part of Bangladesh's T20 World Cup preparation. The mega-event is slated for October-November, either in India or the UAE. Bangladesh are also scheduled to host New Zealand and England between August and October this year.

"As you may have known, Australia have agreed to increase their T20I series from three to five matches," Khan said on Tuesday. "It will be held over eight or nine days. We are trying to be well prepared for the World Cup T20.

"There were also two Tests against Zimbabwe, so we reduced it and added a T20I in its place. I am however not aware about how long the quarantine (in Zimbabwe) is going to be, but it won't be too tough."

Khan also said the BCB won't have any more room to add any international assignment in place of the postponed Asia Cup. Bangladesh's cricketers will now focus on playing the Dhaka Premier League, which is supposed to start from May 31, he said.

"We have a pretty packed scheduled. We will have club cricket after this (Sri Lanka) series. We will go to Zimbabwe, and afterwards we have Australia and New Zealand coming up. We also have to keep the cricketers' bio-bubble and quarantine in mind. It is not always good to play a lot of cricket, so we have to think about our schedule after this series."