Bangladesh Cricket Board announced this after a meeting at a local hotel yesterday, giving him the reins after Habibul Bashar's three-year stint as the captain in both forms of the game. Ashraful becomes the fifth Test captain and fourteenth in the shorter version.

He will lead the Tigers in the forthcoming tour to Sri Lanka where Bangladesh will play three Tests and as many ODIs.

22-year-old Ashraful, who will have inspirational pace spearhead Mashrafe Bin Mortaza as vice-captain, is being appointed as skipper till the Twenty20 World Championship in South Africa in September this year.

Ashraful is the youngest captain of Bangladesh at 22 years and 330 days. He has played 35 Test matches and 101 one-day matches.