‘This is not ideal preparation’ – Bangladesh head coach Chandika Hathurusinghe unhappy in terms of preparation ahead of Ireland series

Bangladesh coach feels that his team is gaining respect among the other teams. (Photo Source: AFP)

With the ICC Cricket World Cup scheduled to be played later this year, all the teams have started preparing as well as figuring out their ideal squad. Citing this, Bangladesh’s head coach Chandika Hathurusinghe has said that his team’s preparation for the upcoming series against Ireland isn’t an ideal one and as good as he would have liked.

Hathurusinghe has mentioned that they haven’t had much practice time along with access to the Cloud County ground in Chelmsford which happens to be the venue for the series. The series is all set to commence on May 9, with all three matches to be played in Chelmsford.

It is to be noted that Bangladesh arrived on May 1 and since then they had the opportunity to enter the venue only on May 8 because Chelmsford was hosting a County Championship game between Surrey and Essex from May 4 to May 7. Post their arrival on the English soil they only had two training sessions in Cambridge as their practice match was washed out.

However, they did manage to get some indoor training sessions at the Fenners facility before their May 7 session was washed out.

When the head coach was asked about the preparation he said, “It [preparation] is a unique situation. We are playing Ireland in England. So normally it doesn’t happen too often. I can’t blame anyone. It is the first time. If we knew this is the case, we wouldn’t have agreed to this kind of schedule. This is not ideal preparation. I won’t blame anyone. We will learn from this one,” as told to ESPNcricinfo.

The former Sri Lankan all-rounder also said that this series is only relevant in terms of the result for Bangladesh as the conditions under which they will be playing in World Cup or the Asia Cup will be completely different. So this will be a great opportunity for youngsters like Towhid Hridoy, Ronny Talukdar, and Mrittunjoy Chowdhury for gaining valuable experience with the senior team.

Also, the likes of Mehidy Hasan and his emergence as an all-rounder have helped the team to have the luxury of playing an extra batter or even a bowler.

“He is a genuine batter with a Test and an ODI century. We can treat him as a genuine all-rounder. We have another genuine all-rounder in Shakib Al Hasan. We are very fortunate with our combination. He also expressed that “Any coach would love to have this luxury. We are fortunate to have two genuine all-rounders. Not many teams have that. We will use it to our advantage,” the coach added.