Bangladesh men’s national cricket team will be prepared to take on any challenges during the side’s tour of Sri Lanka for a three-match Test series against the host nation. Bangladesh will travel to the island later this month and following a month conditioning camp will lock horns with Sri Lanka in the series starting October 24.
Opinion on Bangladesh’s concentration point for the series have been making rounds for a couple of days following a report where chairman of Sri Lanka Cricket selection panel Ashantha De Mel suggested that his team is likely to take the pace option to attack Bangladesh in the series. Ashantha, who is also the manager of the national team, hinted the side might be seen playing up to five pacers.
Claim from the SLC official is however contradictory to the facts and statistics. Pallakele, one of the likely venues for the series, despite being considered as a pace-friendly venue is found to have aided the spinners more be it of the home side or the visitors.
Chief of the Bangladesh national selection panel Minhajul Abedin refrained from making any direct comment to the thoughts of his counterpart rather be prepared for the unexpected.
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“They will have their plan but at the end of the day our duty is to be prepared covering all sides. Such reports do not affect our on-table decision. We will take our preparation because we cannot come to a decision before having the camp and playing practice matches there. We will have preparation [in batting] to face both pace and spin. It is not a home series for us so we need to make sure that we are ready to take on any challenge,” said Minhajul to Dhaka Tribune on Monday.
Bangladesh are mulling to have around 20 to 22 cricketers in the preliminary squad from which it will be turned into at least a 15-member squad following the vigorous training which at this point includes three practice matches that will involve a few of BCB High Performance Unit cricketers. BCB is to send BCB HP unit to tour Sri Lanka alongside the national team.
“We will submit the [national] preliminary squad to the president tomorrow [Tuesday] and it will be announced may be in a day or two. The 15-member squad will be declared following the camp in Sri Lanka. We are still in discussion [at moment] with head coach about the number of players he wants to take in the preliminary squad,” said Minhajul.
Bangladesh cricketers have been busy with individual training sessions for past few weeks across different venues in the country following strict Covid-19 health measure. The sessions at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur however got interrupted last week after one of the BCB trainers was reported Covid-19 positive.
All cricketers in the national fold underwent their first round of Covid-19 test and the reports are due by Tuesday.
