Liton Das became the latest Bangladesh player to be ruled out of the upcoming T20I series against Australia, after a family matter forced him to leave the Zimbabwe bio-bubble on Monday evening. Upon his return to Dhaka sometime on Tuesday, Das will be unable to join the Dhaka quarantine, which automatically puts him out of the squad.
"Liton is out of the series," Akram Khan, chairman of the BCB's cricket operations, said. "He has to attend to a family matter, for which we can't really do anything. We initially had a 20-man squad but after Tamim Iqbal and Mushfiqur Rahim had to pull out, Liton is also not in the squad. We are down to 17 players. The quarantine in Dhaka started on July 20, so we can only have the players who are traveling back from Zimbabwe on July 28."
Das was initially thought to be one of several injury concerns after he suffered a left thigh injury during the first T20I against Zimbabwe on July 20. Chief selector Minhajul Abedin told ESPNcricinfo on Monday afternoon that Das and Mustafizur Rahman could be available from the third match against Australia, fitness permitting.
"Liton and Mustafiz should be available from the second or third game," Abedin had said. "We are not too worried about them. They will be back. Overall, we are confident about the squad. We have just won a T20 series [away against Zimbabwe]."
Das didn't bat in the first T20I and later missed the second and third T20Is against Zimbabwe. Rahman only played one ODI and one T20I during the tour after suffering an ankle injury on July 14 during a tour match. Apart from them, Soumya Sarkar is nursing a groin niggle from the third T20I on Sunday, while Shakib Al Hasan is understood to be managing a long-standing groin injury.
The selectors, however, don't have to announce a squad in advance - according to the playing conditions agreed by the two boards, the teams can only field players who have either been in quarantine in Dhaka since July 20, or been a part of the tours in Zimbabwe and, in Australia's case, the West Indies. For Bangladesh, the 18-man squad involved in the 2-1 series win in Zimbabwe will move directly to the team hotel in Dhaka after reaching the country on July 29.
Among those originally named in the Zimbabwe tour squad, Tamim Iqbal is out with a knee injury while Mushfiqur Rahim is out after he was forced to miss the July 20 quarantine deadline because of a family matter. Legspinner Aminul Islam is also out of contention after he travelled back to Bangladesh midway through the T20I series following the death of his father.
Bangladesh have added Taijul Islam, Rubel Hossain, Mohammad Mithun and Mosaddek Hossain, who were part of the ODI squad, to make up for the missing players in the T20I squad.
Bangladesh T20I squad: Mahmudullah (capt), Shakib Al Hasan, Liton Das, Nurul Hasan (wk), Taskin Ahmed, Shoriful Islam, Taijul Islam, Mohammad Naim, Mohammad Saifuddin, Mustafizur Rahman, Afif Hossain, Rubel Hossain, Mohammad Mithun, Mosaddek Hossain, Soumya Sarkar, Shamim Hossain, Nasum Ahmed, Mahedi Hasan.