Tigers, BCB brace for another challenge
Bangladesh will look to halt their losing streak in the upcoming three-match ODI series against Sri Lanka at home. Tamim Iqbal and his troops will be desperate to return to winning ways in their favoured 50-over format after recently losing two-match Test series in Sri Lanka.
It will also be a chance for the Tigers to add to their points in the ICC ODI Super League. Although Bangladesh began the ODI Super League with a 3-0 whitewash against the West Indies at home in January this year, they lost all the three ODIs in New Zealand in March.
Meanwhile, the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) will have to contend with the challenge of maintain health and safety standards and ensuring a bio-secure bubble for the visitors, who reached Bangladesh yesterday.
This will be the second international series hosted in Bangladesh since March last year, when the pandemic led to the halt of cricketing activities.
While the experience of having hosted the West Indies will be useful, there are growing concerns about Covid-19 especially in this region. Even the cash-rich Indian Premier League was suspended midway through its schedule, so the BCB will be even more cautious this time around.
The visitors will be quarantined in their rooms for first three days. They will then undergo two tests over the next three days before they are allowed to train. The squad will then be allowed to practice at the BCB Academy ground in Mirpur on May 19 and 20.
The Kusal Perera-led side will also play an intra-squad practice game on May 21 at BKSP before the first ODI on May 23 at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur. The second and third game of the series be held on May 25 and 28 at the same venue.
"It will be pretty similar to the health protocols the Bangladesh team had followed on their recent tour of Sri Lanka, according to the guidance of the health ministry. There will be a total of four tests. The final test will be done before departure. The third test will be on May 22 and depending on the result of that test, the ODI series will begin on May 23," chief BCB physician Debashish Chowdhury said yesterday.
On the other hand, the Tigers will check into hotels and enter the bio-secure bubble from May 18. The players in the 23-member squad already started coronavirus testing from Saturday. Shakib Al Hasan and Mustafizur Rahman, who have been in quarantine after returning from India on May 6 upon the suspension of IPL, are expected to join the team on May 18.
The mandatory 14-day quarantine for those returning from India according to the government health protocols means that the players can only join the team on May 21. However, the BCB is trying to relax the protocols as the two cricketers have been in a bio-secure bubble since arriving in the country and have tested negative in multiple tests so far.
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