Bangladesh national cricket team will start their South Africa mission today with a three-day practice match against Cricket South Africa Invitation XI at Willowmoore Park in Benoni.
The Tigers suffered a kind of blow before the match as their pacer Rubel Hossain still could not join the team in South Africa due to an absence of his immigration clearance.
Rubel was forced to return from Dhaka airport on Saturday as the airline that carried the team to South Africa refused to issue a boarding pass for lack of clearance from the host country.
Chief executive officer of Bangladesh Cricket Board Nizamuddin Chowdhury was unable to confirm when they could resolve the problem and make Rubel fly for South Africa.
‘There cannot be a timeframe for this kind of problem. When we will get the clearance, we will try to send him with the next available flight,’ he told reporters in Dhaka.
Bangladesh Test skipper Mushfiqur Rahim expected that a good show in the practice match would help them getting off to a great start in tour and lift their confidence ahead of challenging Test series.
‘Tomorrow [today] is our practice match and hopefully, if we put up a great show, we will get some confidence for the Test series,’ Mushfiq told reporters after their practice in Benoni on Wednesday.
Mushfiq claimed that the forthcoming series wouldn’t be an easy one for the Tigers as the Proteas would be playing in their home condition. Irrespective of the challenge, the wicketkeeper-batsman hoped that they would do something extraordinary akin to their recent Test win over Australia.
‘I think Bangladesh cricket team has been playing really well in the last couple of years. At home, we are very confident. [Also] consistency was there as last time as we beat Australia in our home game.
‘[But] it won’t be easy to play against South Africa in their home condition. So this is our next step because we want to do well in abroad also. So, I think this is the next challenge that we have and one more target we want to achieve,’ he added.
Mushfiq, one of the most experienced campaigners in the current squad, was hopeful that the young players in his team would step forward this time and they would get some real experience from the two-Test series.
‘I think it’s a great opportunity for us because a couple of young players also came on this tour and they will have some experiences probably facing [South Africa] in this condition,’ he said.
Cricket South Africa announced an inexperienced young 12-member squad for the three-day practice match against the Tigers which will be led by Aiden Markram, a 22-year old batman from a northern state.
The match will start at 2:00pm Bangladesh Standard Time.
Bangladesh squad for Test series: Mushfiqur Rahim (captain), Tamim Iqbal, Soumya Sarkar, Imrul Kayes, Mominul Haque, Sabbir Rahman, Mahmudullah, Mehedi Hasan, Taijul Islam, Mustafizur Rahman, Shafiul Islam, Taskin Ahmed, Liton Kumar Das, Subhasish Roy, Rubel Hossain
Cricket South Africa Invitation XI squad: Aiden Markram (Captain), Tladi Bokako, Okuhle Cele, Matthew Chirstensen, Michael Cohen, Isaac Dikgale, Zubayr Hamsa, Heinrich Klaasen, Migael Pretorius, Yaseen Valli, Shaun Von Berg, Lwandiswa Zuma
-With New Age input
