Home ›› 24 Feb 2023 ›› Sport
Chandika Hathurusinghe has had a busy three days since he arrived in Dhaka for his second stint as the head coach of the Bangladesh National Men’s Cricket Team on Monday.
He had several meetings with Bangladesh Cricket Board officials on Tuesday, then attended a press conference on Wednesday alongside the Tigers’ training camp which started that day.
However, it was on Thursday that he could see the bunch at his disposal in action for the first time since his return as the 13 members of the squad bar Shakib Al Hasan, alongside promising cricketers outside the squad, mainly picked from the Bangladesh Tigers and BCB High-Performance programs, were split into two teams and played out a low-scoring affair at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Dhaka.
Despite scoring only 205, the Blue Team, led by One-Day International skipper Tamim Iqbal, won by a convincing margin of 104 runs against the Green Team as Ebadot Hossain and Mehidy Hasan Miraz starred with the ball.
Batting first, the Blue Team lost Tamim (2) early to Hasan Mahmud, and soon Zakir Hasan (8) to Taijul Islam, who was called up instead of Nasum Ahmed for the England series.
Hasan then struck again to get Mushfiqur Rahim (6), and Taijul then got Liton Das (36), meaning the Blue Team were down to 64-4 early on.
But a good 61 runs off 58 balls from Yasir Ali Chowdhury, an innings which featured 11 fours, helped them go past 200, along with some help from Aminul Islam Biplob, who scored 28.
Taijul took four wickets and Hasan took three as the Blue Team was bowled out for 205. Tanvir Islam picked up one wicket and Rishad Hossain took care of the other two.
In reply, Green Team skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto (27) and Mahmudul Hasan Joy (18) added 46 runs in just 4 four overs for the opening stand, handing them a blistering start.
What followed that, though, was a complete wreck as they lost 10 wickets for 55 runs and 17.3 overs, leading them to get bowled out for only 101.
Ebadot picked up four wickets for 37 runs, while Mehidy picked up three for just 16 runs. Nasum Ahmed picked up a couple, while the other went to Rejaur Rahman Raja.
Amongst the Green Team batters, only two others except for their openers reached double figures as both Rishad and Mrittunjoy Chowdhury scored 11.
While there was intent among the batters to score quickly, such a low-scoring total might upset the Sri Lankan coach, although he said earlier that this England series was an opportunity for him to observe.
“I would like to observe the players in the upcoming series. For now, I am relying on the observation and opinions of the other members to judge the team,” he said in the press conference on Wednesday.
He had also refused to comment on the players before seeing them, stating, “I just arrived here, so I haven’t seen the players yet. Let’s see them first.”
After the training match, the Sri Lankan might have had some idea but for now, it’s too small a sample size to judge.
Bangladesh are preparing themselves to face England, who are World Champions in both formats they will be locking horns in – ODIs and T20Is.
The English team will arrive in Dhaka today and will start training from Saturday at the National Academy Ground.
