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A patient yet effective 55-ball 78* from Dane Cleaver, and a dominating effort from New Zealand’s bowlers handed the visitors a resounding 88-run win over Ireland in the second T20I in Belfast. The victory sealed the three-game series for New Zealand, giving them an unassailable 2-0 lead with one game still to go.For the second game in a row, Ireland captain Andy Balbirnie’s decision to bowl first proved costly, as New Zealand posted 179 for 4 in 20 overs. Cleaver, playing only his second T20I, hit five fours and four sixes, and stayed right till the end after coming in to bat at No. 3 in the fifth over.Then New Zealand’s well-rounded bowling unit did the rest, helped in part by some unnecessary attacking shots or risky runs from the Ireland batters. If it wasn’t for a 37-run stand for the eighth wicket between Mark Adair and Barry McCarthy, Ireland’s total could’ve been far lesser than their eventual score of 91.The spin twins Ish Sodhi and Michael Bracewell were the pick of the bowlers for New Zealand, taking three wickets each. Sodhi’s scalps of Curtis Campher, Lorcan Tucker and George Dockrell broke Ireland’s back in the middle overs, leaving him with figures of 3 for 21 but Bracewell had the widest smile by the end of the game. Bowling his first over in T20Is, the offspinner cleaned up the Ireland tail with three wickets in three balls, thus making him only the third New Zealand bowler after Jacob Oram and Tim Southee to achieve a T20I hat-trick.Spinners headline Irish collapse
Ireland’s chase of 180 began with some potential as Mitchell Santner was walloped by Paul Stirling for a six and a four in the very first over. Then when Lockie Ferguson was dispatched by Stirling for four more through the covers, it seemed like the Ireland opener could be the big-hitter around whom the rest of Ireland’s batters could rally.However, three balls after the Ferguson four, Stirling fell slicing a catch to mid off, and thereafter the floodgates opened. From the other end, Jacob Duffy had Gareth Delany bowled for a first-ball duck in the fourth over with the batter failing to get forward to a fullish ball, and Harry Tector then paid the price of being impatient, run-out to a direct-hit from Glenn Phillips at cover while trying to take the fielder on for a quick single.Having gone from 23 for no loss to 27 for 3 in the space of eight deliveries, it was up to the prodigy Campher and Balbirnie to stick a partnership together, but the latter was the next to go, becoming Duffy’s second scalp. Duffy went full and wide, got the ball to swing away under cloudy conditions, and all Balbirnie’s drive could do was take an outside edge to Cleaver wearing the gloves. After a quiet – and rare wicketless – over, Sodhi got among the wickets too in his first over of the game.Tucker tried to slog sweep the legspinner, only to lose stock of where the mistimed ball went. It had dribbled past him to the wicketkeeper, and as Tucker tried to pinch a single thinking the ball has gone elsewhere, he was stumped. Next ball, Sodhi brought a slip fielder for the new batter and Dockrell edged it to James Neesham in the cordon.With the score at 45 for 6, and ESPNcricinfo’s forecaster giving Ireland less than 1% chance of a win, the pressure was off the Ireland lower order. Mark Adair, in particular, hit a few lusty blows after Campher became Sodhi’s third (and Ireland’s seventh) wicket. Adair went 4, 4, 6 off Sodhi’s third over to ruin his otherwise tidy bowling figures and then drilled Neesham over his head for another boundary. His partner for the eighth-wicket stand, Barry McCarthy, tonked Neesham and Bracewell for a couple of fours too.But Bracewell’s offbreak had Adair caught at deep midwicket for a 22-ball 27, and with the batters crossing, McCarthy too was out next ball, slogging to the same region. On a hat-trick, Bracewell had better luck than Sodhi, taking his third wicket in three balls as the No. 11 Craig Young tried to clear cover, only to slice a catch behind point, and ending Ireland’s innings at 91.Dane Cleaver attempts a reverse sweep during his highest T20I score•Sportsfile/Getty Images

Cleaver follows his cousin’s footsteps
Having made his T20I debut at the age of 30 only two days ago, it was another chance for Cleaver to make the most of the opportunity of batting at No. 3 for New Zealand with senior batters being rested for the T20Is. Coming in at a position favoured by his first-cousin Kane Williamson – after the fall of Finn Allen’s wicket, Cleaver made a sedate start, but kept upping his gears right until the 20th over.Allen’s blitz at the top had allowed New Zealand to race to 40 for no loss after four overs, but he fell for a 20-ball 35 trying to take McCarthy on in the fifth over. With Martin Guptill struggling with his timing, and Cleaver playing but missing the swinging deliveries offered by the Irish seamers, it seemed like the hosts would provide yet another squeeze to the New Zealand top order like the first T20I.But Cleaver grew in confidence, in particular trusting the bounce on offer to play the pull on numerous occasions to finally get off the blocks. Even with Guptill falling for a 17-ball 11 in the ninth over, Cleaver motored along at a strike-rate of under 110 to move into his twenties in Phillips’ company for the third wicket. Together, they added 53 in 5.2 overs, and as Cleaver’s confidence grew, so did his choice of shots. He scooped McCarthy for an ingenious six over the keeper one time, and then played a sliced drive on purpose to beat the fielder at deep point.However, Cleaver did receive a reprieve on 40 when he skipped down the ground to a Dockrell slider, only to miss it. But the wicketkeeper Tucker failed to grab it, and Cleaver offered no further chances. He picked Adair’s two slower balls in the 16th over well enough to smack them for boundaries, then brought up his maiden half-century in 39 balls with a six over deep midwicket. Daryl Mitchell, the No. 5, contributed just 14 runs in his 48-run stand with Cleaver, letting the man in form enjoy most of the strike.Cleaver would go on to thump Young for a pulled six in the 18th, then tonked Josh Little for three fours in four balls in the 19th, and earned his final boundary off the innings’ penultimate ball by slicing a four behind square on the off side. In all, New Zealand made 50 off the last five and Cleaver finished unbeaten on 78 in 55 balls. His performance eventually eked out the Sodhi-Bracewell efforts in the second innings to also earn him the Player of the Match award.

Mumbai Indians owner Nita Ambani has been asked by the BCCI ethics officer Vineet Saran to respond to a conflict-of-interest complaint filed against her.The complaint was made by former Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association (MPCA) member Sanjeev Gupta, who raised the issue that Ambani, the owner of the Mumbai franchise in the IPL, is also a director at Reliance Industries (RIL), whose subsidiary Viacom 18 bought broadcast rights for the IPL from 2023 to 2027 for a sum of INR 23,758 crore (US$ 3 billion approx).Viacom 18 secured the digital rights to stream the IPL in India, and also the media rights (both TV and digital) for Australia and New Zealand, the UK, and South Africa, at the e-auction* conducted by the BCCI in June.According to Gupta, Ambani’s positions as a team owner in the IPL and as a director in the company that owns the subsidiary that has acquired IPL broadcast rights, represents a conflict of interest.”It is submitted that RIL website states that Viacom 18 is a subsidiary company of RIL,” Mr. Gupta wrote in his complaint about the alleged conflict of interest, according to PTI.Saran, a former Supreme Court judge, has given Ambani until September 2 to file a written response to the complaint.”You are hereby informed that a complaint has been received by the Ethics Officer of the Board of Control for Cricket in India under rule 39(b) of the rules and regulations of BCCI, regarding certain acts, allegedly constituting ‘conflict of interest’ on your part,” Saran wrote in his notice to Ambani. “You are directed to file your written response to the accompanying complaint on or before 2-9-2022.”Gupta, the person who filed the complaint, has a history of raising conflict-of-interest issues in Indian cricket. In the past, he has filed such complaints against Virat Kohli, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, MS Dhoni and BCCI vice president Rajeev Shukla among others.*ESPNcricinfo and Disney Star are part of the Walt Disney Company. Disney Star was also part of the e-auction and acquired the IPL TV rights for India from 2023 to 2027

Sheldon Cottrell, Roston Chase and Kyle Mayers are among four members of the West Indies touring party who have tested positive for Covid-19 upon arrival in Pakistan on December 9. The trio, along with a non-coaching member of the team management, will undergo self-isolation and will subsequently be unavailable for the three-match T20I series, which begins in Karachi on Monday.The touring squad landed in Karachi in a commercial flight from the Caribbean via Dubai, and have been confined to their rooms since then. The four members tested positive in the initial tests that were done after arrival.Johnny Grave, the CEO of Cricket West Indies, confirmed that the tour will go ahead as scheduled despite the Covid-19 cases.”Our arrival testing protocols in Pakistan have confirmed four (4) Covid-19 positives,” Grave said. “These were confirmed whilst the players and staff were still in room isolation, so despite this significant setback to our preparation plans, we are confident that the tour can continue as everyone else returned negative PCRs prior to their arrival into Pakistan and two negative PCRs since they have been in Karachi.Related

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“The risk of Covid-19 infection is impossible to remove completely from a cricket tour, in spite of the fact that many of our players have been living in bio-secure bubbles almost continuously since before the CPL. This unusual loss of three players from our squad will seriously impact our team preparations, but the rest of the squad are in good spirits and will begin training today ahead of our first game on Monday.”A CWI media release added that “all four members are fully vaccinated and are without major symptoms”. But they will stay in isolation for 10 days and will not be allowed to join the main group until they return negative tests. They will be monitored by Dr. Akshai Mansingh, the team physician.The absence of Cottrell, Chase and Mayers further depletes a West Indies team that is already without many of their senior players. While regular captain Kieron Pollard has been sidelined with injury, Andre Russell is in Australia playing the Big Bash League.Karachi will host the entire white-ball series, which comprises three T20Is and three ODIs, the last of which is on December 22.

What was essentially a dead rubber looked like slipping away from Royal Challengers Bangalore at 55 for 3 halfway into a chase of 165 against Delhi Capitals. But then two catches slipped through the hands of Shreyas Iyer and R Ashwin, and Glenn Maxwell made the most of the lives to set the scene for a blockbuster finish from KS Bharat.It was still anybody’s game when Royal Challengers needed 19 off 12 balls. Anrich Nortje, who had taken out both Virat Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal in his first two overs, stepped up once again, bowling a four-run penultimate over to leave Royal Challengers needing 15 off the final over, bowled by Avesh Khan.

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Maxwell found the boundary off the first ball and followed it with a double to notch up his fourth half-century in his last five innings. The third ball was a terrific inswinging yorker which smashed Maxwell’s boot, but he survived again because this had pitched outside leg stump. A leg-bye put Bharat on strike and the next ball was a swing and a miss. Two off the penultimate ball, thanks to a misfield from Axar Patel in the outfield, eventually left Royal Challengers needing six off the last ball. Avesh went searching for another leg-stump yorker, but ended up bowling a full-toss down the leg side for a wide.Avesh whisked short fine leg back for the last ball and went for another yorker, but it came out as a full-toss again, this time on the stumps. Bharat lined it up and pumped it over long-on to provide a throwback to Arun Karthik’s last-ball six for Royal Challengers in the Champions League T20 a decade ago.Perhaps if Royal Challengers had batted first and adopted a no-holds barred batting approach like Mumbai Indians had done in Abu Dhabi, their slimmest of chances of making the top two might have stayed alive a tad longer. Match practice and fine-tuning aside, the game was dead from the moment they decided to bowl. Next, they will run into Kolkata Knight Riders in the eliminator, while Capitals will face Chennai Super Kings in the first qualifier.The Dhawan-Shaw show
Virat Kohli had thrown the new ball to Maxwell, giving him a crack at Shikhar Dhawan, but the left-hander picked him off for 15 off eight. Prithvi Shaw, who had managed scores of 11, 10, 6, 18 in his first four innings in the UAE this IPL, hit form by driving and punching on the up in the powerplay, which yielded 55 runs overall for Capitals.Shaw also lined up Yuzvendra Chahal for a pair of sixes, but the legspinner dangled one outside the batter’s eyeline and found sharp dip to have him holing out to sweeper cover for 48 off 31 balls. Dhawan too had fallen by then, with Harshal Patel tricking him with his trademark loopy offcutter for 45 off 35 balls.Having copped a George Garton beamer on his shoulder, Dhawan was spotted with an icepack after his dismissal and subsequently he didn’t take the field in the chase.3:53

Gambhir: Bharat did a fabulous job for RCB

The middle order doesn’t show up
After Dhawan and Shaw put on 88 together in the first ten overs, the pitch slowed down, as did the rest of the Capitals batting line-up. They could muster only 76 in the second chunk of their innings, with Mohammed Siraj and the slower bowlers hiding the ball away from their swinging arcs. Dan Christian bounced out Rishabh Pant before Siraj had both Shreyas Iyer and Shimron Hetmyer holing out. Ripal Patel, who had retained his spot in the XI ahead of an overseas option, also couldn’t get the ball away at the death, getting a run-a-ball seven.Bharat, Maxwell punish sloppy Capitals
With the Royal Challengers openers falling cheaply, AB de Villiers came in as early as the third over and began a repair job with a run-a-ball 26. Axar dismissed de Villiers in the tenth over and could’ve got Maxwell (twice) soon after had Ashwin and Iyer had not dropped those chances. Having been reprieved on 6 and 16, Maxwell showed off his range once again, slogging and reverse-slogging his way to an unbeaten 51 off 33.As for Bharat, he was a more sedate presence in the early exchanges against high pace, but then laid into Axar’s left-arm darts, taking him for 25 off just nine balls.With two right-handers in the middle, Ashwin bowled just a solitary over, which cost Capitals 11 runs. Ripal stepped in for Ashwin with his medium-pace, giving up 22 in his three overs. Nortje maintained his machine-line accuracy at the death, but Avesh had a rare off day as Bharat finished off the league phase of IPL 2021 with a last-ball six.

Derbyshire 205 (Bamber 5-41) and 42 for 1 need 292 more runs to beat Middlesex 282 and 256 (Robson 52) A last-wicket stand of 58 between Toby Roland-Jones and Tim Murtagh leaves Derbyshire needing the fifth-highest run chase in their history ahead of day four at Lord’s.The two pacemen missed eclipsing Middlesex’s 10th-wicket record against Derbyshire of 66 set three years ago, but their effort carried the hosts to 256 all out, a lead of 333, Alex Thomson taking 3 for 71.Murtagh then removed Luis Reece as somehow Derbyshire limped to 42 for 1 in an absorbing last session truncated by bad light, still needing 292 for victory.Earlier, Ethan Bamber took Derbyshire’s last first-innings wicket to record a career-best 5 for 41.Bamber needed just five balls to register his landmark, having Sam Conners caught at mid-wicket.Middlesex, leading by 77 made the worst possible start as Mark Stoneman, on debut and on a pair, shouldered arms to the first ball of the innings from Conners and lost his off stump.It was the cue for a frenetic second innings effort from the hosts, who constantly seemed in too much of a hurry to build on their advantage.Stephen Eskinazi’s boundary-sprinkled cameo ended with an ugly shot caught at point and first innings centurion Robbie White fenced at a wide one to be caught behind for nought.Sam Robson was the exception, leaving well outside off stump and driving bad balls to the boundary on both sides of the wicket.This mix of judgement and aggression took him to 50 in 55 balls with nine fours as he shared a half-century stand with Max Holden for the fourth wicket.But on 52, Robson suffered a rush of blood, charging off-spinner Thomson who bowled him through the gate.Holden and Martin Andersson each threatened to establish dominance only to fall for 44 and 41 respectively, the latter the second of two wickets in seven balls for Anuj Dal as the Seaxes slumped to 198 for 9.But Murtagh and Roland-Jones (33 not out) wrestled back control with a mix of good running and aggression.Inspired by his 31, Murtagh then removed Luis Reece for a duck via an edge through to John Simpson and 46 balls passed before a run was scored as Billy Godleman and Tom Wood clung on amid numerous appeals like wounded boxers in need of the bell.Relief came with Middlesex forced to bowl spin before a second interruption for bad light brought play to a close 11 overs early.

India have called up two uncapped players in Railways medium-pacer Meghna Singh and Baroda left-hand batter Yastika Bhatia for all three formats for their tour of Australia in September and October. The T20I squad includes another uncapped player, 25-year-old pace-bowling allrounder Renuka Singh of Himachal Pradesh.Meanwhile, left-arm spinner Rajeshwari Gayakwad returns after missing the tour of England owing to a knee injury and Covid-19.The 22 playing personnel selected for the Australia tour have been spread across an 18-member consolidated squad for the three ODIs and the one-off pink-ball Test, and a 17-player squad for the three-match T20I series. ESPNcricinfo understands that the selection of an additional player for the tour of Australia, compared to 21 picked for the tour of England earlier this year, was down to allowing Gayakwad and T20I captain Harmanpreet Kaur more time to make progress on their fitness before the warm-up fixture scheduled for September 15.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Gayakwad, who had been at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) for several weeks for rehabilitation work around her injured right knee, entered the ongoing preparatory camp in Bengaluru directly from the NCA last week, while the first batch of probables had assembled on August 10. Kaur, meanwhile, returned to India last week, having ended her Hundred stint in the UK prematurely owing to a quad injury. She then joined the other four Hundred-returnees in the camp to round out the pool of 35 probables.Kaur and Gayakwad are understood to be clinically fit, but their ability to sustain workload for the longer formats is yet to be assessed, especially of Kaur, who is currently serving a mandatory six-day quarantine in the Bengaluru bubble. Given the squad for the Australia assignment was finalised on Monday, the possibility of deferring a decision on the inclusion of Kaur and Gayakwad was off the table. They are both, however, expected to train ahead of India’s departure on August 29.The injection of pace in Thakur and Meghna aligns with head coach Ramesh Powar’s thrust on widening the fast-bowling pool ahead of next year’s ODI World Cup in New Zealand.Yastika had got her maiden India call-up in March, for the limited-overs series against South Africa in Lucknow, but she warmed the bench all through.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Wicketkeeper-batter Indrani Roy, top-order batter Priya Punia, and medium-pacer Simran Bahadur, who were part of the 21-member squad that toured England in June-July, have been left out. None of them featured in the playing XI in any of the matches against England.India have also decided to split the wicketkeeping duties, with Taniya Bhatia selected for the Test and ODIs, and Richa Ghosh chosen for the T20Is.Before picking the final squad, the five-member selection panel met with Powar and several senior players in Bengaluru. Selectors Neetu David and V Kalpana are expected to be in the touring party to Australia, where the visitors will serve a mandatory 14-day hard quarantine. Meanwhile, Gargi Banerjee, the India manager for the tour of Australia, entered the biobubble in Bengaluru on Tuesday after a two-day delay, and is likely to be in quarantine through the best part of this week. She was felicitated in Kolkata on Saturday by the Cricket Association of Bengal for her appointment, causing the delay.India will begin the tour with three ODIs, after which they will play a day-night Test. There will be three T20Is to conclude the tour.Only Test and ODIs squad: Mithali Raj (capt), Harmanpreet Kaur (vice-capt), Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Punam Raut, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Sneh Rana, Yastika Bhatia, Taniya Bhatia (wk), Shikha Pandey, Jhulan Goswami, Meghna Singh, Pooja Vastrakar, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Poonam Yadav, Richa Ghosh, Ekta Bisht.T20I squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (capt), Smriti Mandhana (vice-capt), Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Sneh Rana, Yastika Bhatia, Shikha Pandey, Meghna Singh, Pooja Vastrakar, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Poonam Yadav, Richa Ghosh (wk), Harleen Deol, Arundhati Reddy, Radha Yadav, Renuka Singh.

Paul Stirling, the Ireland batter, will replace New Zealand’s Devon Conway at Southern Brave, and the availability of Wahab Riaz, the Pakistan quick, for the Trent Rockets means their South African recruit Marchant de Lange will leave the men’s Hundred after four matches and return to Somerset for their Royal London One-Day Cup campaign.Conway, also a Somerset man and one of the more prominent newcomers at the international stage, had a steady run with Brave in the Hundred, getting starts on each occasion. He had scores of 18, 23, 34 and 22 for a tally of 97 runs, scored at a strike rate of 112.79. But in that last game, against London Spirit at Lord’s, Conway took a blow from a Blake Cullen delivery in the fingers of his left hand very early in his innings, and while he finished his innings, he didn’t come out to field.Stirling, the veteran batter, wasn’t at his best when he turned out for Ireland during South Africa’s visit in July for a set of ODIs and T20Is, but brings with him a wealth of experience. Not to forget the exceptional form he was in earlier this year in Abu Dhabi, when he scored ODI centuries against UAE and Afghanistan.de Lange, meanwhile, was one of the bowling stars of the competition, the joint-leading wicket-taker after the first 17 matches with eight wickets, the same as Northern Superchargers’ Adil Rashid and the Rockets’ Rashid Khan.But the Rockets will welcome back their original pick, Riaz, whose participation in the Hundred had been delayed after he reached the UK because of an issue with his visa – he didn’t have a valid work permit – which forced him to fly home, sort it out, and then return to link up with his team. He has completed his mandatory quarantine on his return to the UK, and is available for the Rockets’ next fixture, against Welsh Fire on Friday in Cardiff.The Rockets have had the better time of it at the tournament so far, three wins in four outings giving them a top-of-the-table spot with six points, while Brave are in the other half of the eight-team table, down at seventh place with four points from four games, only above Spirit.

Tamim Iqbal will miss competitive cricket for at least two months because of a knee injury. He will return home from Harare after the ongoing ODI series against Zimbabwe – the third game is taking place today – and miss the entire three-match T20I series as well as the upcoming T20I series against Australia and New Zealand at home.”Tamim will return home alongside Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Taijul Islam from the ODI side,” Minhajul Abedin, Bangladesh’s chief selector, said. “Tamim has been advised to rest for six to eight weeks. He won’t be able to play against Australia [in August] and New Zealand [in September] at home, but he might play against England [in October]. We have asked Rubel (Hossain), (Mohammad) Mithun and Mosaddek (Hossan) to stay back with the T20I side as part of our contingency plan for the Australia series.Related

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“We have to keep players in quarantine for ten days ahead of the Australia series bio-bubble. We want to have as many options as possible as we won’t be able to call up players from outside the bio-bubble.”Iqbal reportedly sustained the injury in Sri Lanka in April, but recovered enough to play the ODI series against them in May. He also played 11 matches in the T20 Dhaka Premier League, but the injury forced him to miss the Super League phase of the competition.He went on to miss the one-off Test against Zimbabwe earlier this month, before saying that he would “manage” the injury and play the ODI series, chiefly because it is part of the World Cup Super League.The decision to take time off came following a recommendation from Dr David Young, the Melbourne-based orthopedic surgeon, who many Bangladesh cricketers, including Iqbal and Mashrafe Mortaza, have consulted over the years.Australia are expected to arrive in Dhaka next week to play five T20Is, scheduled from August 2 to 8. New Zealand are likely to play three or five T20Is in Dhaka starting early September, before England arrive in October to play three ODIs and three T20Is.

Sri Lanka batsman Avishka Fernando has been ruled out of the ODIs against England with a grade two tear to his quadriceps. Fernando had picked up the injury while fielding in the second T20I, in Cardiff, and had not played in the third match in Southampton.The injury is particularly disappointing for Fernando, because this had been his first tour with the national team since the start of the pandemic. Earlier this year, he had missed out on limited-overs squads to West Indies and Bangladesh because he had failed fitness tests.Although Fernando would have likely been in the first-choice XI, Sri Lanka have several batsmen capable of playing in the top three in his place. Danushka Gunathilaka, Kusal Perera, Kusal Mendis, Oshada Fernando and Pathum Nissanka have all batted in the top three in the past (Nissanka mainly for his domestic teams).Fernando’s absence, however, does weaken Sri Lanka ahead of an already daunting assignment. Not only are Sri Lanka ranked ninth in ODIs while England are fourth (as well as the format’s World Champions), they have also lost six of their last eight completed ODIs against England.Sri Lanka were also easily whitewashed in the three-match T20I series that concluded on Saturday.

Khaled Mahmud, the former Bangladesh captain and current BCB director, has tested positive for Covid-19 and is currently isolating at home.Mahmud, 49, was the Bangladesh team director on their recent Test tour of Sri Lanka and was supposed to have the same role for the home ODI series that starts on Sunday, against the same opponents. He is also a coach in the Dhaka Premier League, which is scheduled to begin on May 31.Mahmud had reportedly tested negative twice after returning from Sri Lanka but tested positive recently, according to a board official. The Bangladesh squad had started training on May 18, after the Eid break, but Mahmud did not join them.The BCB currently has a biosecure bubble in place for the ODI series that has hubs in the team hotel and the Shere Bangla National Stadium where all three matches will take place.The Sri Lanka players were in quarantine for three days upon their arrival on May 16, while the Bangladesh team that arrived from Sri Lanka also had a three-day home quarantine. Shakib Al Hasan and Mustafizur Rahman were in hotel isolation for 11 days after they returned from the IPL that was suspended earlier this month.There have been 1504 new Covid-19 cases and 26 deaths in Bangladesh in the last 24 hours. The graph has taken a downward trend since early April when the country had gone into lockdown due to the second Covid wave.Bangladesh’s third Test captain, Mahmud represented Bangladesh from 1998 to 2006 and played 12 Tests and 77 ODIs. His contributions with the ball – 13 wickets in Tests and 67 in ODIs – were more noteworthy than his runs with the bat, 266 in Tests and 991 in ODIs. He was the Player of the Match in the 1999 World Cup match when Bangladesh upset Pakistan in the group stage. He later took to coaching after retirement and has been the BCB director since 2013.