DHAKA: Bangladesh will host Zimbabwe and the West Indies for back-to-back series later this year, a senior Bangladesh cricket official said on Thursday.

Zimbabwe were originally scheduled to visit in January 2019 but the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) brought forward the tour to October avoid any potential clash with national elections.

The BCB announced on Wednesday that the West Indies would arrive on Nov 15 for their first full tour to the country since 2012.

“Apart from the West Indies, we’ve also confirmed the Zimbabwe series in October,” said BCB chief executive Nizamuddin Chowdhury.

“They [Zimbabwe] will play two Tests and three ODIs. It means we will now play back-to-back series this year.”

The West Indies series will include two Tests, three One-day Internationals and three Twenty20 Inter­nationals between Novem­ber and December.

The last match West Indies played in Bangladesh was during the 2014 World T20. Their last bilateral tour of the country was in 2012-13.

West Indies had blanked Bangladesh 2-0 in the Test series then, but the home side fought back to take the ODI series 3-2, while West Indies ended the tour with victory in the solitary T20 International.

The Zimbabwe tour dates have not yet been announced.

West Indies schedule:

Nov 18-19: Two-day match (Chittagong).

Nov 22-26: First Test (Chittagong).

Nov 30-Dec 4: Second Test (Dhaka).

Dec 6: One-day match (Dhaka).

Dec 9: First ODI (Dhaka).

Dec 11: Second ODI (Dhaka).

Dec 14: Third ODI (Sylhet).

Dec 17: First T20 International (Sylhet).

Dec 20: Second T20 (Dhaka).

Dec 22: Third T20 (Dhaka).

Published in Dawn, July 27th, 2018