Women’s T20 WC qualifiers: Bangladesh to face PNG in opener

Bangladesh will take on Papua New Guinea in the opening encounter of the ICC Women's T20 World Cup Qualifiers 2019, set to be played in Scotland from August 31 to September 7. Ireland will also face Namibia on the opening day of the tournament. The league-cum-knockout tournament will conclude with two teams qualifying for next year's World T20 in Australia.

Namibia were named as a replacement for Zimbabwe, having finished second in the Africa regional qualifiers earlier this year, while the Netherlands (Europe), Papua New Guinea (East Asia-Pacific), Thailand (Asia) and the USA (Americas) made it after winning their respective qualifying events. Scotland qualified as hosts.

The eight teams are divided into two groups with the top two from each entering the semifinals. Bangladesh, Thailand, Scotland and the USA form Group A, while Group B consists of Ireland, Papua New Guinea, Namibia and the Netherlands.

The tournament will be preceded by a warm-up match for each of the teams, to be played on August 29.

The Tigresses will now head for a 10-day preparation camp in Netherlands before the qualification round begins in Scotland. Bangladesh finished as runners-up and champions during 2015 and 2018 qualifiers respectively.