Bangladesh Cricket Board has confirmed that Nigar Sultana Joty will continue as ODI captain for the upcoming tour of Australia. The decision came after speculation that the board might appoint a new captain following Joty’s decision to step down from the T20 International captaincy midway through the Asian Games. Bangladesh are scheduled to play three ODIs against Australia during the tour.
BCB president Tamim Iqbal and women’s wing chairman Rafiqul Islam Babu convened with the women cricketers at the BCB headquarters on Monday, September 28, 2026, to address the captaincy situation and other matters affecting the team. During this meeting, Rafiqul Islam Babu made the official announcement regarding Joty’s future role.
“I announced it today (during the meeting) that ‘you (Joty) are remaining as the captain and will go to Australia as captain’,” Rafiqul was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz.
Board addresses coach’s recent remarks
The confirmation of Sultana’s captaincy comes at a time when the Bangladesh women’s team has experienced mixed fortunes in recent months. The team emerged as unbeaten champions in World Cup qualifiers earlier in 2026 but faced a 2-1 home series defeat to Sri Lanka, mixed results in a Scotland-Netherlands tri-series, and won only two matches from five outings at the World Cup itself.
“Our coach made some indiscreet comments that nobody wanted to hear. I think he went somewhat beyond the code of conduct in making those comments. Since he is under contract with the BCB, he cannot really make such comments. He has already said it, and that is very unfortunate,” Babu noted.
“We have not issued any show-cause notice yet. He is a very senior coach, and we did not expect this from him. Among the senior coaches working under the cricket board, he is one of them. So we did not expect this from him. I said in the media that he made a mistake, a serious mistake,” he concluded.
Nigar Sultana has been a consistent performer for Bangladesh in ODI cricket. In 68 matches, she has scored 1,585 runs at an average of 27.81 and a strike rate of 56.57. She has registered nine fifties and one century, with her highest score being 101.
