All cool on the Tigers' front

Much like the weather, it was a rather calm and cool atmosphere at the home of cricket in Mirpur yesterday ahead of the second and crucial T20I encounter between Bangladesh and West Indies today.

Following an eight-wicket hammering in the first T20I in Sylhet, the Tigers seemed relaxed during training while their West Indies counterparts were more enthusiastic after registering a commanding win.

Other than the win, Caribbean T20I skipper Carlos Brathwaite, batsman Shimron Hetmyer and wicketkeeper-batsman Nicholas Pooran also had reason to be over the moon after Tuesday's Indian Premier League auction.

The three West Indians were roped in by Kolkata Knight Riders, Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Kings XI Punjab respectively for handsome sums in the auction.

That situation was in stark contrast to the scenario in the Bangladesh camp, from which both Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah Riyad, the only two Tigers in the IPL auction, remained unsold.

However the demeanour from the two senior members of the Bangladesh team remained as cool as the weather as they were busy preparing for the second game.

The one man who could perhaps have made things livelier and even warmer through his interactions with the media, T20I skipper Shakib Al Hasan, only came to the ground for a short while before returning to the team hotel.

Shakib also did not attend the pre-match press conference ahead of the first T20I in Sylhet after picking up a knock to his toe in the nets. It was learned that Shakib was so angry that he sent the Tigers head coach Steve Rhodes to interact with the media ahead of the first T20I in Sylhet.

That anger was also reflected by his comments about asking other batsmen why they did not perform in the post-match presentation and the fact that he received a fine and demerit point for arguing with umpires during the game.

The champion all-rounder yet again did not appear for the pre-match press conference yesterday, with Soumya Sarkar taking on the duties. However, this time it was not due to an unknown source of anger but because of a slight fever.

"It's not flu as there is no cough or cold. He [Shakib] has a slight temperature around 100 degrees and we are waiting for it to reduce. If it does not, he will take medicine," Bangladesh Cricket Board chief physician Debashish Chowdhury told reporters yesterday.