Bangladesh cricket team on Sunday started training ahead of their return to the 50-over format after a gap of seven months at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram.
The Tigers and the visiting Afghanistan team are in the port city ahead of their three-match one-day international series which will be held in its entirety at the ZACS starting from February 23.
Bangladesh last played an ODI series back in August of 2021, in Zimbabwe against the hosts, which they won 3-0.
The Tigers’ last ODI at home was in May the same year against Sri Lanka in Dhaka, which they lost by 97 runs but still won the three-match series owing to their wins in the first two matches.
The majority of Bangladesh’s notable successes in cricket have come in ODIs and the Tigers have long been a formidable side in the 50-over format.
The hosts will follow their usual game play in ODIs at home to win against the Afghans, said Mehidy Hasan. ‘Our primary aim will be to win the series,’ Mehidy said after the team’s training session at the ZACS.
‘We will have a simple plan. We will play the same way we usually play in ODIs. We are not thinking about clean sweeping them or anything. We want to play good cricket and of course, are aiming to win the series,’ he added.
Unlike the recently concluded Bangladesh Premier League, the Bangladesh-Afghanistan series will have the Decision Review System available, said the board’s media committee chairman Tanvir Ahmed Titu.
‘The DRS system was supposed to be available for the last phase of the BPL. All necessary equipments were already here but unfortunately, the technicians couldn’t arrive,’ Tanvir said in the Afghanistan series logo launch ceremony in Mirpur.
‘But this time we have already confirmed, the technicians will arrive soon, we will have DRS available from the matches in Chattogram,’ he added. Tanvir also informed that the BCB is trying to get clearance from the authorities to allow 50 per cent fans in the stands.
‘We have received a hint that there has been a discussion to allow maybe three-four thousand fans in Chattogram and at least five thousand fans in Dhaka. But we are still trying [to increase the number]. If we get the nod from the government, we will try to allow fans at 50 per cent capacity.’
All members of Bangladesh’s 15-man ODI squad trained at the ZACS in the afternoon except Shakib Al Hasan and Mustafizur Rahman.
The Afghanistan team trained at the same venue earlier in the day.
The Tigers’ head coach Russell Domingo conducted the first day’s training while their newly appointed batting coach Jamie Siddons was yet to join the team as he tested positive for Covid-19 in his retest on Saturday.
He had earlier tested positive for the virus on February 12. Siddons is currently in isolation in Dhaka and at risk of being absent in the dugout when the first ODI begins on Wednesday.
-With New Age input
