DHAKA —The Bangladesh national cricket team left Bangladesh today for a two-match Test series in Sri Lanka, which is the part of ICC World Test Championship.
The Tigers left the country on a chartered flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines. Mominul Haque and company will be in mandatory three-day room quarantine from April 12-14 after arriving in Sri Lanka. They will then have quarantine training from April 15-16 after which they will play a two-day inter-squad warm-up game from April 17-18.
The Tigers will train on April 19 and 20 before taking on Sri Lanka for the first Test on April 21. The second and final Test starts on April 29. All of the two matches will be held in Pallekele International Cricket Stadium in Kandy.
Mominul Haque who led the side just one victory out of six matches after taking over the Test captaincy role said that the Sri Lanka series will be challenging one for them but insisted that they need to improve their position in Test cricket, in which they remained extremely vulnerable.
“Sri Lanka is a great team at home. It will be challenging for us. It won’t be easy for us. But the situation we find ourselves in, we have to take up this challenge and get a good result. I think it will be a competitive series. Both teams have good pace bowlers. Batting is going to be very important. We haven’t been batting up to everyone’s expectations off late,” he said.
Bangladesh of late has been in tumultuous condition following their 2-0 loss in the Test series against a depleted West India at home and a whitewash in ODI and T20 series in New Zealand.
As a captain Mominul Haque was also under fire but he believes they are now well prepared to do well in Sri Lanka because most of the red ball players had match practice as they played two first class matches in NCL.
“Within all the limitations we have had over the last 12 months, I think we have done well in terms of preparations. I think the Test regulars have had better preparations than the one-day players. We have played two first-class games recently, and practiced with the red ball,” he said.
Bangladesh announced a 21-member preliminary squad for the series and all of the players went to Sri Lanka as the team management wants to form two teams for a practice match on Lankan soil. Moreover the extra members will be used as the net bowler also. The selectors will announce the final squad after the inter-squad practice game.
Preliminary Squad: Mominul Haque, Liton Kumer Das, Md Mithun, Mushfiqur Rahim, Tamim Iqbal Khan, Shadman Islam, Abu Jayed Chowdhury Rahi, Taijul Islam, Najmul Hossain Shanto, Mehidy Hassan Miraz, Nayeem Hasan, Taskin Ahmed, Ebadot Hossain Chowdhury, Mohammed Saif Hassan, Yasir Ali Chowdhury, Shoriful Islam, Syed Khaled Ahmed, Mukidul Islam Mugdho, Shuvagata Hom Chowdhury, Shohidul Islam, Quazi Nurul Hasan Sohan.BSS
