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Bangladesh national team’s coaches have started to arrive in Dhaka ahead of their upcoming series against England, which begins on March 1.
The England national team will arrive in Dhaka on February 24 and play a warm-up match before the series begins.
Ahead of the series, Chandika Hathurusinghe, the recently re-appointed Bangladesh head coach, arrived in Dhaka via a Singapore Airlines flight at 10:40 PM on Monday. Pace-bowling coach Alan Donald arrived at 9:15 AM on the same day.
Spin-bowling coach Rangana Herath arrived during the last days of the Bangladesh Premier League, watched three matches, and is currently supervising a camp with spinners at the National Academy Ground in Dhaka.
Bangladesh Cricket Board has organised a training camp ahead of the series, which will commence on Wednesday. 13 of the 14 players called up will take part in the camp from the start, while Shakib Al Hasan will join late. The all-rounder is currently busy with some personal matters regarding his family, for which he left the Pakistan Super League after two matches despite being contracted for five.
According to reports, Hathurusinghe will have a busy day today as he is set to meet several BCB officials and members of his coaching staff ahead of the series.
He will be reunited with several players from his previous tenure, which lasted from 2014 to 2017. Tamim Iqbal, Mushfiqur Rahim, Shakib, and Mahmudullah are there, along with the likes of Taskin Ahmed, Liton Das, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Mustafizur Rahman, Taijul Islam, and Najmul Hossain Shanto. All of them except for Taskin debuted in the national team under Hathurusinghe.
Taskin expressed his thrill of working with Hathurusinghe earlier this month.
“I am thrilled that Hathurusinghe is returning as coach. He is a quality coach and a good person. I am sure it will be good with him. Those of us who were young then (in Hathurusinghe’s first tenure), are a bit more mature. The team is also in a better position,” the pacer said.
The new players in the series for Hathurusinghe will be Afif Hossain, Ebadot Hossain, Hasan Mahmud, and Towhid Hridoy, with the series being the first national team call-up for Hridoy.
At the end of his last tenure, Hathurusinghe was working with Courtney Walsh as the fast-bowling coach while Sunil Joshi worked with the spinners. This time around, the Lankan will have compatriot Herath working with the spinners, while Donald is looking after the pacers.
Herath has already handed out a testimony for his countryman.
“With Chandika, you know that he has been with Bangladesh cricket and he has done well in that period. For me, I have kind of experience of playing with him as well as under him when he was a coach. I have very good, positive feedback about him as well as confidence about him that Bangladesh cricket will (get) help from him,” the former Sri Lankan player told the media on Sunday.
