No Pahela Baishakh for Tigers

The Tigers, except for Shakib Al Hasan and Rubel Hossain, attended their first official practice session for the Pakistan series at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur yesterday.

It was a long day for the players. They first hit the gym for a number of hours in the morning and then attended various skill sessions in the evening.

As all three ODIs are day-night affairs at Mirpur, the Tigers had a batting session under lights at the centre wicket where Tamim Iqbal and his most likely opening partner Rony Talukdar went first to have some knock.

Shakib, who will be captaining the Tigers in the first ODI in place of the suspended Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, skipped practice as he wasn't feeling well and decided to take a day-off. Rubel, on the other hand, had a few issues to settle in court.

In a bid to battle Pakistan's strong left-arm seam attack, the Bangladesh batsmen faced left-arm pacers in the nets for a long time yesterday. They will be training today on Pahela Baishakh as well.