Shoaib Akhtar shocked at Bangladesh's acceptance to play in Pakistan, suspects barter deal

There was a lot of buzz going around Bangladesh's tour of Pakistan and after a lot of discussions, Bangladesh finally gave a nod to play a 2-match Test series as part of the ICC World Test Championship against Pakistan on Pakistani soil. The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) had agreed to play limited-overs series in Pakistan but they were hesitant to play the Test series. However, both the boards finally came to a conclusion and mutually agreed upon playing the full-fledged series on split dates.

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Shoaib Akhtar makes sensational claim about Bangladesh-Pakistan series

However, in a sensational revelation, former Pakistan pacer Shoaib Akhtar on his YouTube channel said that he had heard about the speculations of a possible barter deal between the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) and the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB)  after the BCB agreed to tour Pakistan in February 2020. Akhtar added that there were reports that Bangladesh might have agreed to tour Pakistan in return of getting hosting rights of Asia Cup this year, which was previously supposed to be played in Pakistan.

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The Board of Control for Cricket in India i.e. BCCI had expressed their concern in playing the Asia Cup if it was hosted in Pakistan, which added fuel to the reports of the Asia Cup being shifted out of the country. Shoaib Akhtar also went on to praise the PCB, Ehsan Mani and Wasim Khan for their work behind the scenes and lauded their efforts to bring Test cricket back to the country. Shoaib Akhtar added that Pakistan was statistically one of the safest countries in the world and the Sri Lankan players had praised their security arrangements recently.

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Bangladesh will compete with Pakistan in a three-match T20I series in Lahore from January 24-27 before returning to Pakistan for the first Test from February 7-11 in Rawalpindi. They will visit again to play an ODI in Karachi on April 3. The tour will end with the second Test from April 5-9.

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IMAGE COURTESY: SHOAIB AKHTAR INSTAGRAM