Dhaka: Left-arm spinner Nahida Akter on Sunday has been named as Bangladesh’s new women’s T20I captain. Nahida will take over from wicketkeeper-batter Nigar Sultana, who stepped down from the role after the Asian Games.
Sobhana Mostary has been named vice-captain of the T20I side. “We sat with members of the selection panel along with others and decided to hand over the T20I captaincy to Nahida. Sobhana Mostary will be her deputy,” BCB women’s wing chairman Rafiqul Islam was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz.
Nahida had been widely tipped to succeed Nigar, after having served as her deputy ever since the wicketkeeper-batter was handed the T20I captaincy in 2022. Rafiqul added the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) felt it was the right moment to promote her after spending four years as Nigar’s understudy.
“Nahida has been the vice-captain for a pretty long time and now we feel the time is right to give her the responsibility of our T20I squad,” he said. After the Asian Games was over in Japan, Nigar had decided to give up the T20I captaincy to concentrate more on her own game, a move that caught the board off guard.
The report also mentioned that Nigar, 29, was unhappy with the way she had been treated by the BCB in recent times. Nigar, however, will continue to lead Bangladesh in the 50-over format, having captained the side in the recent three-match ODI tour of Australia.
With this, Bangladesh will have separate captains in the two white-ball formats for the foreseeable future. Bangladesh’s next T20I assignment is the ICC Women’s Emerging Nations Trophy in Thailand, where they open their campaign against Pakistan on November 12.
The tournament will be Nahida’s first assignment as T20I captain, and it will give her an early chance to stamp her authority on the side and set the tone for her tenure. It will also give Nahida and her deputy Sobhana an early opportunity to build their working relationship as a leadership pair in a multi-team event.
–IANS–
