Australia are all set to tour Bangladesh later this year in August for a five-match Twenty20 series. Previously, it was scheduled for a three-match series, but Cricket Australia has agreed to increase the number of games.

Bangladesh Cricket Board cricket operations chairman Akram Khan has confirmed the developments. Keeping in mind the ICC T20 World Cup later this year, Bangladesh have also dropped one Test from their tour of Zimbabwe and added one additional T20I.

Australia to play 5 T20Is against Bangladesh

Tamim Iqbal & Co will now play one Test, three ODIs, and as many T20Is in Zimbabwe in the month of June. They are also scheduled to host New Zealand and England later this year between August and October.

“As you may have known, Australia have agreed to increase their T20I series from three to five matches. It will be held over eight or nine days. We are trying to be well prepared for the World Cup T20,” Khan was quoted as saying on Tuesday, May 25, ESPNcricinfo reported.

“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,” he stated.

Akram Khan also mentioned that Bangladesh won’t be playing any cricket in the time for the postponed Asia Cup. Their cricketers will be focussing on the Dhaka Premier League, scheduled to get underway on May 31.

“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,” he said.

Bangladesh are currently playing against Sri Lanka. They beat the Islanders by 103 runs via DLS method in the 2nd ODI to seal the series with one match still to go.