Bengal And Lahore Qalandars to Clash Against Each Other in 4-team Global T20 Namibia Series

Cricket Association of Bengal joint secretary Debabrata Das has stated that the two teams of India and Pakistan domestic cricket will clash against each other in a T20I series in Namibia. Bengal cricket team and Lahore Qalandars are chosen as two teams from India and Pakistan respectively for the four-team Global T20 Namibia series in September. Namibia will be the third team to participate in the tournament while a domestic side from South Africa will be fourth as the name of the team is expected to be revealed soon.

India and Pakistan have not played a bilateral series since January 2013 due to diplomatic issues between the two countries. However, the two Asian giants only square off against each other in ICC tournaments in recent times.

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Debabrata revealed why Bengal chose to play the tournament as the board feels it will be good preparation for the team ahead of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.

“The broadcasters for the tournament came before our president (Avishek Dalmiya) and invited us. We took the opportunity to play six-seven games before the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy because we can get to play against a World Cup team," Debabrata Das, Cricket Association of Bengal joint secretary, said as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.

“The ambition is that there are several young players who are playing in local cricket in Bengal and performing fantastically with respect to T20s. So we are sending mostly those young guys so that we can make our team for the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.

“The team we are sending abroad, this is a new team. We want to see how they play, how they tackle this tournament," he added.

Bengal has also announced the squad for the tournament with Abhimanyu Easwaran being named the captain. RCB all-rounder Shahbaz Ahmed is another notable name in the team.

Here is the Bengal squad for the Global T20 Namibia series:

Abhimanyu Easwaran (captain), Abhishek Das, Ritwik Roy Chowdhury, Ranjot Singh Khaira, Shreyansh Ghosh, Karan Lal, Writtick Chatterjee, Shreyan Chakraborty, Shahbaz Ahmed, Abhishek Porel (wicketkeeper), Suprodip Debnath (wicketkeeper), Ishan Porel, Mukesh Kumar, Akash Deep, Soumyyadip Mondal, Ravi Kumar.

Standby: Ankur Paul, Pradipta Parmanik, Debopratim Haldar, Siddharth Singh.

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