Nigar Sultana Steps Down as Bangladesh T20I Captain After Asian Games

Nigar Sultana, the face and voice of Bangladesh’s T20I side for the last few years, is preparing to walk away from the captaincy in the shortest format once the Asian Games are done. She will stay on as ODI captain, but in T20Is she wants her hands free – for the bat and the gloves.

This is not a snap decision. Cricbuzz understands Nigar had already told the Bangladesh Cricket Board that she intended to relinquish the T20I role, prioritising her core skills as a wicketkeeper-batter. BCB president Tamim Iqbal has accepted the call, and the move became official when Nigar put it in writing from Japan on Tuesday, September 15.

A Tenure Marked by Breakthroughs and Bruises

Nigar took over the T20I captaincy in 2022, inheriting a side searching for identity and consistency. Under her, Bangladesh found both resilience and a few landmark moments.

The standout came at the 2024 T20 World Cup. Bangladesh, carrying a decade-long drought at the global event, finally snapped it with a win over Scotland – their first World Cup victory in ten years. Nigar stood at the centre of that revival, not just with the armband but with performance.

Across the tournament she scored 104 runs in four innings, holding together fragile batting efforts, and contributed seven dismissals behind the stumps. It was the kind of all-round influence captains dream of delivering, and it briefly eased the questions around Bangladesh’s trajectory in T20Is.

The pressure, though, never fully left.

Earlier in 2026, Bangladesh stormed through the World Cup qualifiers as unbeaten champions, a run that suggested the side was finally learning how to impose itself. That campaign looked like a turning point, a statement that Nigar’s methods were starting to bite.

Then came the stumbles.

A 2-1 home series defeat to Sri Lanka cut into that optimism. The Scotland–Netherlands tri-series brought only mixed returns, the team lurching between promise and frustration. At the World Cup itself, two wins from five matches were not enough to silence scrutiny. The questions sharpened. Was this as far as this leadership cycle could go?

Nigar has now given her answer.

A New Phase, Same Standard

By stepping down from the T20I captaincy, Nigar is betting on herself in a different way. She wants to strip away the extra noise, to focus on run-making and sharp glovework while still guiding the ODI side.

Bangladesh must now decide who carries the T20I baton into the next cycle. Nigar, meanwhile, will be judged not by the toss but by the weight of her runs and the snap of her takes.

Her captaincy chapter in T20Is is closing. Her influence on Bangladesh women’s cricket is not.