Tigers practise in full force

For the first time on the tour of Ireland and England, the full Bangladesh ODI squad took part in a practice session yesterday at the Stormont Cricket Ground in Belfast.

The Tigers had first travelled to Sussex, England in late April for a 10-day preparatory camp ahead of the tri-series in Ireland, starting with the first game against the hosts on May 12 in Dublin, and next month's Champions Trophy in England.

From the 18 named for the tri-series -- which also involves New Zealand -- Shakib Al Hasan, Mustafizur Rahman and skipper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza were not present till yesterday. While Mustafizur and Shakib were engaged in the Indian Premier League and reached England on Saturday, Mashrafe had travelled back to Dhaka to be with his ailing wife and rejoined the team on Sunday in Belfast.

The team underwent a full practice session from 2:00pm to 5:00pm local time, and the good news was that opener Tamim Iqbal, who sat out the two warm-up games in Sussex because of back pain, had a net session and seemed to be batting comfortably.

The tri-series in Ireland will be played in a league system without a final. The team at the top of the table at the end of two rounds will be named champions.