Wounded Tigers will be in preliminary camp

The preparation camp for the upcoming assignments against Afghanistan and West Indies will kick off from May 13 at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur. The national selectors are expected to declare a preliminary squad for the camp tomorrow.

"We are planning on submitting a 28-member preliminary squad for Test, ODI and T20I series on May 5. There is hardly any chance of any new faces entering the picture as the High Performance and A teams will also be in the midst of practice and if needed we can call someone from there," said chief selector Minhajul Abedin yesterday.

Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) chief physician Dr. Debashish Chowdhury informed that all the injured players will be able to join the camp but there will be some restrictions on them.

Over the past six weeks Nasir Hossain tore a ligament in his right knee, Mehedi Hasan Miraz suffered a labral tear on his right shoulder similar to pacer Mustafizur Rahman's injury in 2016, Tamim Iqbal has had issues with his meniscus in his left knee, Taskin Ahmed has been experiencing back pain, Mushfiqur Rahim sprained his ankle and Mahmudullah Riyad also suffered an ankle injury.

"Tamim has almost recovered and he has no problems while jogging. Now we would like to see how he responds in sprinting. Mushfiqur started running and he has no complaints. But as Mushfiqur and Mahmudullah will both go abroad to perform Umrah, their rehabilitation programmes will be halted for a few days.

"We already made an appointment with [Dr. David] Young [in Australia] for Nasir. Miraz was given two injections and he is feeling good. Taskin's improvement however is not satisfactory and we will review his condition on Saturday. All the injured players will join the camp but there will be some restrictions for them and we are hopeful of their timely recoveries," informed Chowdhury.

BCB CEO Nizamuddin Chowdhury informed yesterday that the series against Afghanistan next month will be finalised within a week. "Cricket operations manager [Sabbir Khan] went to Dehradun in India to see the ground and other facilities and we will receive a report within the next two-three days," said Nizamuddin, who also added that there was no update regarding appointment of new head coach but they were trying to finalise before the tour of West Indies in June.