Tigers gear up as Shakib joins

Shakib Al Hasan, who landed in Dhaka on Monday morning, joined Bangladesh National Team’s training camp on Monday afternoon ahead of their three-match One-Day International series against England, starting on March 1.

The star all-rounder joined the camp five days after its inception as he was busy with some personal issues back in the USA, where his family leaves. He reached Dhaka in the morning, amidst the chaos that ensued after Bangladesh Cricket Board President Nazmul Hassan revealed in an interview that he and Bangladesh ODI skipper Tamim Iqbal had a running rift, which Tamim accepted saying that there was no problem as long as they were giving their all for the Tigers.

On Monday’s training, that seemed to be the case as the duo batted side by side and also participated in fielding drills in the same group, trying to prepare for the crucial series up ahead.

Back and busy

Shakib is never known for working very hard in training, something which personfies in his teammate Mushfiqur Rahim. On Monday though, he was very active in the training, both in skill practice and communication.

After the initial warm-up at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Ground, the all-rounder was among the first batch of batters to test themselves out in the nets of the Indoor Ground. He batted for over half-an-hour, facing pacers first, then throw downs, and then the spinners.

While facing the throw-downs, Shakib was batting in the first net at the Indoor Ground, it was Tamim who was doing the same in the next one.

After his batting session, he took up the ball before returning to the SBNCS for the fielding drill, where he was initially grouped with Tamim for high-catching before he went through quick throwing practice as his last training of the day.

In between bowling and fielding, Shakib had a long chat with newly-reinstated head coach Chandika Hathurusinghe.

Mahmudullah struggles

Mahmudullah Riyad was the cricketer who batted for the longest in the nets, with the veteran taking over an hour in the nets.

He mainly batted against the bowling machine which was bouncing balls off granite slabs, a tactic seemingly being used to deal with the pace and bounce of English pacers Jofra Archer and Mark Wood.

However, Mahmudullah was struggling to deal with the bounce but those did not end there as he also faced trouble dealing with the spinners, especially against leg-spinner Rishad Hossain.

And while facing spin, he almost cost Bangladesh dearly by injuring either Mustafizur Rahman or Taskin Ahmed.

Mustafiz survives

Mahmudullah had hit a ball from Rishad straight down the ground with some force. The shot was filled with authority but the problem was, Mustafiz, alongside Taskin and Hasan Mahmud, was standing straight ahead, collecting drinks after their bowling session.

The ball missed Taskin and then just missed Mustafiz’s ankle before hitting the cooler kept at the ground and breaking it, which suggested that if it hit the Fizz’s ankle, it could have been game over for him for the England series.

Mahmudullah, in his batting effort, tried to pull and hook a lot but often failed to time the ball to perfection. Later in the day, the veteran also struggled during the quick-throw drill.

Liton, Tamim work on technique

Both the national team openers - Tamim and Liton Das - extensively talked with new coach Hathurusinghe about their technique during the batting training. Liton spent around 20 minutes with the Lankan, where he was seemingly talking about his elbow movement and bat face movement while Hathurusinghe was telling him about minor adjustments.

After the talk, Liton went back to nets and seemed to time the ball effortlessly, his area of strength, and looked content following the end of his tent.

Later, Tamim also came up to talk with the Sri Lankan but it was after he ended his session in the nets and the duo did not chat for long as Tamim left the indoor ground for the field.