Originally the matches were scheduled to be played as
One Day Internationals (ODIs), but the
Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) agreed to change the fixtures to T20Is in preparation for the
2020 ICC World Twenty20 tournament. These were the first international cricket matches to be played at the venue. Ahead of the T20Is, Bangladesh played a practice match against
Afghanistan A. Prior to this series, Afghanistan and Bangladesh had only played each other once before in a T20I, in the group stage of the
2014 ICC World Twenty20 tournament, with Bangladesh winning by nine wickets. ==Squads==