Not much time left for Tigers

The Tigers were scheduled to return home last night after an unsuccessful Asian Games campaign in South Korea.

The national cricketers are scheduled to be back in business after the Eid holidays on October 14 to prepare for the home series against Zimbabwe, who arrive in Dhaka on October 17 on a one-and-a-half month tour to play three Tests and five ODIs.

Bangladesh will desperately be looking to turn around their fortunes in this series as they are yet to win any international match in the year 2014 against a Test-playing nation. Luck even denied them from bringing home any positives from Incheon as they had to return home with a consolatory bronze medal at the Asian Games as rain disrupted the semifinal, which was decided by coin flipping.

Head coach Chandika Hathurusingha, under whom the Tigers are yet to make any mark, has already put forward his practice plan for the upcoming series against Zimbabwe which includes a three-day practice match.

The performance of the Bangladesh A team in the recently concluded series against Zimbabwe A, who had a number of national players in the squad, can be an inspiration for the Tigers, who are looking forward to bouncing back from their losing streak in international cricket.

For Hathurusingha, the main job would be to work hard with the batsmen during the practice sessions before the series because batting is the main problem for him. The return of Shakib Al Hasan already came as a big relief to him but he still has some concerns with his bowling department as the board is waiting for the report of spinner Shohag Gazi's suspected bowling action, while pacer Al-Amin Hossain is also scheduled to go to Chennai to have his action tested on October 18.

"We are expecting to receive the report of Gazi by October 14 while Al-Amin is likely to go to Chennai on October 18. I am hopeful that both will be available for selection for the coming home series," said BCB's cricket operations committee chairman Akram Khan.

Off-spinner Gazi had said that he was confident of earning a good result from the bio-mechanical test at Cardiff University in Wales.

The national selectors were yet to decide on the long list for the training camp but the Faruque Ahmed-led selection panel is likely to call in as many players as possible.