Former India star all-rounder and Royal Challengers Bangalore's (RCB) batting and spin coach Sridharan Sriram has been appointed as Bangladesh coach for the imminent Asia Cup in UAE and T20 World Cup in Australia.
A report in "The Daily Star" newspaper quoted a BCB director, who confirmed Sriram's appointment and said, "Yes, we have chosen Sriram up until the World Cup."
"As we are moving forward with a fresh mindset, the new coach will be seen from the Asia Cup onwards. And since the T20 World Cup is our main target, he (a new coach) will not get time to adapt if he is not recruited from the Asia Cup.
"Many may say that there is not much left for the Asia Cup. However, as I said, our main focus is the T20 World Cup," he further added.
Sriram represented India in eight ODIs between 2000 and 2004 and also served as Australia's assistant and spin-bowling coach for a long time.
It was under former Australian coach Darren Lehmann, Sriram was entrusted with the responsibility as a spin bowling coach in 2016.
The 46-year-old recently stepped down from that position to focus on his role with the Indian Premier League (IPL) side, Royal Challengers Bangalore.
The BCB official, however, also said, that South African Russell Dominigo would continue to be in charge of the Test side.
"Domingo would continue his role in guiding the Test team, for now, as we have a Test match against India in November ."
Earlier, all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan was been named as the Bangladesh captain for the upcoming Asia Cup and T20 World Cup. The marquee Asia Cup will be played in the UAE from August 27 as the 15th edition of the tournament will be played in the UAE between six teams (main event). Defending champions India are also the most successful team, having won the trophy seven times. While the last edition of the tournament was held in an ODI format, this edition will feature the T20 format.
The six teams are divided into two groups with India, Pakistan and a qualifying team in Group A; and Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Afghanistan forming Group B. Each team plays the other once in the group stage with the top two teams from each group advancing to the Super 4 round. The top 2 teams from Super 4 will qualify for the final.
Shakib will not only lead Bangladesh in the upcoming Asia Cup but also the Tri-Nation T20 series involving Pakistan and hosts New Zealand in October followed by the T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia.
Bangladesh's Asia Cup Squad: Shakib Al Hasan (capt), Anamul Haque, Mushfiqur Rahim, Afif Hossain, Mosaddek Hossain, Mahmudullah, Mahedi Hasan, Mohammad Saifuddin, Hasan Mahmud, Mustafizur Rahman, Nasum Ahmed, Sabbir Rahman, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Ebadot Hossain, Parvez Hossain Emon, Nurul Hasan Sohan, Taskin Ahmed.
India's Asia Cup Squad: Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Deepak Hooda, Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravi Bishnoi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan.
Standby: Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, Deepak Chahar
Pakistan's Asia Cup Squad: Babar Azam (captain), Mohammad Rizwan, Fakhar Zaman, Haider Ali, Shadab Khan (vice-captain), Asif Ali, Mohammad Nawaz, Haris Rauf, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Usman Qadir.
