The Bangladesh cricket team will resume practice today at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium following a two-day break due to strike. Mashrafe bin Mortaza and Co will be training in two sessions at the home of cricket.
Opener Tamim Iqbal, who returned to the country last Wednesday after a successful surgery and two-week rehabilitation programme in Melbourne, Australia, missed the start of the national camp. The 25-year old left-hander is expected to attend the training sessions today.
All-rounder Shakib al Hasan is the only cricketer from the 15-man final squad who will not be able to join the Tigers’ camp. The world’s number all-rounder in all three formats of the game is now in Australia playing for Melbourne Renegades in the KFC Big Bash Twenty20.
The Renegades’ last match of the group stage is scheduled against Adelaide Strikers, Shakib’s previous employers, this Monday. If the Renegades are unable to win and reach the semifinals, Shakib’s Big Bash campaign will be over.
However, it was learned that the poster boy of Bangladesh cricket will remain in Australia even after the Renegades’ Big Bash campaign. There, he will be joined by the rest of the Tigers’ contingent, who will fly Down Under this Saturday.
Bangladesh will take on Afghanistan in their 2015 ICC World Cup opener on February 18. Before that, Mashrafe and his charges will play four warm-up matches, including two official practice matches against Pakistan and Ireland.