Bangladesh captain Towhid Hridoy won the toss and elected to field first in the opening T20I of the three-match series against Zimbabwe at Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo. It was Bangladesh’s fourth consecutive toss win on the ongoing tour.
Bangladesh have gone with a balanced XI featuring six batters, two spinners and three pacers. Yasir Ali Rabby returns to the T20I side for the first time in three years.
Bangladesh last played a T20I series at home against Australia, where they suffered a 3-0 whitewash. Zimbabwe, meanwhile, are playing their first T20I since the T20 World Cup and will take the field high on confidence after winning both the one-off Test and the three-match ODI series against Bangladesh.
The visitors, however, are without several key players. Regular captain Litton Das is sidelined through injury, while left-arm pacer Mustafizur Rahman also misses the series with an injury.
Bangladesh XI: Tanzid Hasan Tamim, Saif Hassan, Parvez Hossain Emon, Towhid Hridoy (capt), Yasir Ali, Nurul Hasan (wk), Mahedi Hasan, Mohammad Saifuddin, Nasum Ahmed, Taskin Ahmed, Nahid Rana.
Zimbabwe XI: Brian Bennett, Tadiwanashe Marumani, Dion Myers, Sikandar Raza (capt), Ryan Burl, Milton Shumba, Clive Madande (wk), Tashinga Musekiwa, Brad Evans, Richard Ngarava, Blessing Muzarabani.
