Online Desk: The atmosphere in the Bangladesh team and the weather in Hobart changed to a great extent a day before the Tigers’ opening clash against Netherlands during the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup.
Bangladesh had a long flight from Brisbane to Hobart due to weather issues on Saturday and it forced them to cancel their scheduled practice session on the same day.
It also limited their practice session to one ahead of their opening Group 2 Super 12 match after they failed to take on the field for the last three days.
Meanwhile, although a cold snap is passing around in Hobart, there was hardly any rain which was predicted in the weather reports for Sunday and the sun also came out later on the day.
It also gives a good impression that the match between the Tigers and the Dutch mayn’t have to face any rain issues as the percentage of rain chance in Hobart for today’s game at Bellerive Oval dropped to 30 percent from 90 percent overnight.
Bangladesh team reached the practice venue – Kingston Twin Ovals – at the right time on Sunday before they started their training at 11:00am local time.
The venue is known as ‘Twin Ovals’ because it has one cricket ground and the other ground is an Australian rules football which is popularly known as footy in the country.
Although the players were shivering in cold windy weather, all of them were in a jovial mood during the entire practice session and it brought fresh air to the team’s attitude towards their opening match game plan.
Soumya Sarkar – a late inclusion in the Tigers’ World Cup squad – and Najmul Hossain Shanto began their batting session at the centre wicket of the venue while Liton Das and skipper Shakib Al Hasan batted at the same time in the nets.
Initially, all the batters had struggled in the middle as they were unable to practice for the last few days but as they started batting for a longer time, they soon began to hit the balls well with Liton ruling the rooster by managing to clear the boundary quite a few times.
Shakib, who only batted against the spinners on the day, had a ball hit by a throw down in the nets but after his initial batting, he also batted at the centre wicket for quite a few minutes.
It suggested that the player is completely fine and ready to lead the team again in a World Cup – the first time since 2011 when he captained Bangladesh in the 50-over format of World Cup.
Afif Hossain, Yasir Ali and Nurul Hasan Sohan were the next three batters following a similar pattern – first batted in the nets and then again in the centre wicket – while Mehidy Hasan, Taskin Ahmed, Mustafizur Rahman and Hasan Mahmud also seen honing their skills in the nets.
Mosaddek Hossain was only limited to an off-spinner on the practice day as he bowled in both places alongside Mehidy, Nasum Ahmed but Shakib once again opted not to bowl in the practice despite his not getting wickets in the last three T20Is.
Pacer duo Shoriful Islam and Ebadot Hossain were the less engaging players on the day which suggested that Bangladesh might go with other three pace options while may take on the field with one off-spinner Mehidy, who showcased his T20 batting ability since he returned to the team a few months back.
Although the team management had cleared their stance against Netherlands game through the practice day itinerary, they might also make some last-minute changes like Mosaddek in place of Mehidy as the latter mostly failed to complete his full quota overs.
Bangladesh team were scheduled for a two-hour practice but later they extended it for one more hour and finished it with some fielding practices including catching and ground fielding.
The team looked much spirited and a great bonding between the players was clearly visible which was one of the important facets before starting their campaign in such a big tournament.
However, there were some missing parts as well. Bangladesh will play at Bellerive Oval but they failed to conduct a practice session over there before their showdown against Netherlands.
During a pre-match press conference, Shakib informed that their technical consultant Sridharan Sriram and technical director Khaled Mahmud went to Bellerive Oval to have an idea about the wickets.
“They returned back with an observation. But when the players will go to the field, they will make their own plans. The perception is different from one to another,” Shakib said in Hobart on Sunday.
A BCB official later confirmed that the match between Bangladesh and Netherlands will be played at a used wicket and it was previously used in the Group B qualifying round match between Scotland and Ireland which produced a high-scoring match on October 19.
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