The domestic teams of India and Pakistan are set to face off each other after a gap of eight years. The Bengal team of India and Lahore Qalandars of Pakistan will be the two sides that will feature in a four-team Global T20 Namibia series in September. While the host nation will be the third team, a South African side, that is yet to be named, will be the fourth.
Given any bilateral series between India and Pakistan has not been played since January 2013 due to the increased political tensions between the two nations, fans of the two sides get an opportunity to enjoy the cricket rivalry only during ICC events. Amidst all that, the face-off between Bengal and Lahore Qalandars will give the fans another opportunity to enjoy some promising entertainment.
It is worth noting that Bengal have already declared their squad for the upcoming series in Namibia. Abhimanyu Easwaran will be leading the side that also includes the likes of Shahbaz Ahmed and Ishan Porel.
“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.”
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Here is the Bengal squad for 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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