The Bangladesh national team are set to return to the T20I format after a five-month gap with some fresh faces onboard when they take on New Zealand in the first of the three-match series at the Bir Sreshtho Shahid Flight Lieutenant Matiur Rahman Stadium in Chattogram today.

The match is scheduled to begin at 2:00pm, and T Sports will telecast it live.

A lot has happened in the country’s cricket since Bangladesh’s last fixture in the format against Ireland last November.

Bangladesh boycotted the last T20 World Cup; a new government and, subsequently, a new board came to the BCB. A new chairman, along with two new selectors, assumed their roles.

Giving up the opportunity to play in the World Cup was a big setback for them, which took a heavy toll on some of the players.

Litton Das, whose captaincy tenure was also extended during this period, stated that they ‘definitely’ moved on from that setback.

‘We played a tournament [Odommo Bangladesh T20 Cup] during that time of the World Cup where the players tried to play their best cricket,’ Litton said ahead of the first T20I against New Zealand.

‘The biggest thing is as international games, each one is very important. I guess they’ll think like that and will take on the field bearing that mindset needed for playing for Bangladesh,’ he said.

While there is no immediate tournament or world event ahead for Bangladesh in the format, Litton wants to maintain the momentum they gained before the World Cup.

‘Our main goal is the World Cup in 2028, which will not be held in Asia, as we all know. So we’ll think like that,’ he said.

‘And definitely as our bonding was great before the last World Cup, the preparation was also very good, so we will try to begin from there so that the team is well gelled,’ he added.

Abdul Gaffar Saqlain and Ripon Mondol are the new inclusions in the T20 team as the main pacers Mustafizur Rahman, Taskin Ahmed, and Nahid Rana—all have been rested.

While Litton wanted to maintain a stable team leading into the last World Cup, he now wants to give the fringe players opportunities to grow.

‘It’s easy to rotate the bowlers. Those who are not in the squad are big assets for Bangladesh cricket. I don’t want them to be finished by playing continuous cricket because, as you know, we have a lot of ODI and Test matches ahead,’ Litton said.

‘So from that point of view, we’ve started to change some things. As the World Cup is so far ahead, there’s still enough time to grow the players. This is the perfect opportunity to give them some matches,’ he added.

Litton also mentioned the importance of growing the next bowler like Mustafiz.

‘It’s not easy to fill in his gap. But if he’s injured, someone else has to step up. So the more time the players get, the more they will develop and can close the gap with Mustafiz,’ he said.

Litton also doesn’t want to put pressure on the players in this series after a long gap.

He said, ‘One thing is we are going to play this format after a long time. So I don’t want to put pressure on the players. After playing one or two games, everyone will realise everything automatically from their own point of view, as there is the matter of setting everything up.’

Bangladesh will play as many as nine T20s this year. Litton wants to cash in those matches. After this series, Bangladesh are supposed to host Australia in June and India in August.

‘The three back-to-back series are against strong opponents. So this is a positive sign that once we play this one, the next two will become relatively easy,’ said Litton.