Last warm-up before tri-series today

The Bangladesh team will play their final practice match before the Ireland tri-series against Ireland Wolves at the Stormont Cricket Ground in Belfast today. The match will start at 3:45pm (Bangladesh time).

The Tigers practised in two batches at the same venue yesterday. A group of nine players -- Imrul Kayes, Shakib Al Hasan, Sabbir Rahman, Mahmudullah Riyad, Sanjamul Islam, Shafiul Islam, Subashis Roy, Nurul Hasan and Mustafizur Rahman -- practised in the morning from 9:15am local time (2:15pm Bangladesh time). The rest -- skipper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, Tamim Iqbal, Soumya Sarkar, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mossadek Hossain, Nasir Hossain, Rubel Hossain and Mehedi Hasan practised from 10:30am (3:30pm Bangladesh time) onwards.

The only player from the 18-man squad in Ireland who did not practise yesterday was Taskin Ahmed. It was learnt that the fast bowler was being rested in order to keep him fresh for the first ODI against Ireland on May 12. He will likely be rested from today's practice match too.

Shakib, the ODI vice-captain and newly appointed T20I captain, will lead Bangladesh in the first ODI of the tri-series against Ireland as regular skipper Mashrafe will be serving out a one-match ban he picked up for slow over-rate in the third ODI in Sri Lanka on April 1.

It may turn out that Shakib will lead in the practice match today as well, although Mashrafe is likely to play. A decision on that will be taken in the morning.

The Ireland tri-series, which also features New Zealand, will be a league-based event without a final; the team with the most points at the end of two rounds will be named the winner.

The tri-series will be followed by the England leg of Bangladesh's tour, where they will participate in the eight-team Champions Trophy starting with the Bangladesh-England match on June 1.