Australia will play two Tests in Bangladesh in August and September this year, Cricket Australia (CA) CEO James Sutherland has given the strongest indication.

According to the Cricket Australia website on January 4, Sutherland says, “There’s a high chance Australia will play two Tests in Bangladesh later this year.”

Earlier in October 2015, Australia was scheduled to play two Tests and a tour match in Dhaka and Chittagong in October 2015, but the tour was postponed due to security concerns. But after England toured the Asian nation late last year without incident, having been given an unprecedented level of security, Sutherland is confident Australia will return in August and September this year.

Australia have not played in Bangladesh since Ricky Ponting’s team toured there in 2006 and, outside major tournaments, the two nations have played just two ODI series against each other in Darwin (2008) and Dhaka (2011) since then.

Australia also did not send a team to the Under-19 World Cup in Bangladesh in early 2016.

“I think they’re quite high,” Sutherland told ABC radio today of the chances Australia would tour Bangladesh in 2017.

“We certainly get a great deal of comfort from the way the security measures were put in place by the Bangladesh government in conjunction with the cricket board over there.

“At the moment, I would be assuming that we would be playing two Tests over there. They’re tentative dates around August or September, I would think.”

Australia will play four Tests in India in February and March and they are also scheduled to play an ODI series in India in October 2017 before England arrives down under for their Ashes defence. If the Bangladesh series goes ahead as expected, the Australians will have played their most recent six Tests heading into the Ashes on spin-friendly Asian pitches, where they have traditionally struggled.