UNB, Dhaka :
Team Bangladesh is back home after winning all the three trophies in Zimbabwe.
Ahmed Sazzadul Alam, team leader for the tour and also a director of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB), told the media that the team landed at Dhaka airport around 9am on Thursday.
Bangladesh played a one-off Test, three ODIs and three T20Is in this tour. They won all the matches but a T20 international.
After arriving in Dhaka, all the members of the Bangladesh national team, coaching staff went to a three-day in-room quarantine at a hotel in the capital. They will start training ahead of the five-match T20I series against Australia, which is set to begin on August 3 at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium.
The Australia cricket team is also scheduled to arrive in Dhaka later Thursday. They took a chartered flight from Barbados.
The Australians are also set to go to a three-day in-room quarantine at a hotel in the capital. Australia will not have to undergo the traditional immigration process at the Dhaka airport. They will travel to the team hotel directly from the airport. They will also start their pre-series preparation after maintaining this quarantine period.
“We are doing everything that Cricket Australia demanded,” Nizamuddin Chowdhury, the CEO of BCB, told the media recently. “We hope the series will go as it was planned. We previously had hosted two teams at the home during the pandemic. We now know how to maintain a bio-secure bubble. So it won’t be tough for us. We are taking everything into consideration, and we are prepared to tackle every situation that may come along the way.”
While Bangladesh will play against Australia with a fresh memory of winning a series against Zimbabwe, Australia will have to take the field with the agony of losing a series to the West Indies.
Australia lost to West Indies 4-1 in a five-match T20I series. The two-time T20 World Champions were too good for the Aussies.
In Bangladesh, Australia will play five matches in seven days. The first match of the series will take place on August 3, while the other matches will be played on August 4, 6, 7 and 9. All the matches will be played at the same venue — Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium.
Bangladesh will have to maintain a strict bio-secure bubble for this series, as per the demand of Cricket Australia.
Australia are going to miss some big names for this series, while Bangladesh are also set to miss the services of Tamim Iqbal, Mushfiqur Rahim and Liton Das. Tamim and Liton have been out of this series due to injuries and family reasons, while Mushfiqur is out for missing a quarantine deadline.
