Before leaving for the UAE for their opening fixture of the ICC Champions Trophy against India, Bangladesh underwent a five-day training camp in Mirpur, where a few extra bowlers were brought in to assist the squad.

While most of the net bowlers were either internationally capped cricketers or had extensive experience in the domestic circuit, there was also a 17-year-old spinner in the camp, with just one List-A match to his name: Nuhayel Sandeed, son of the national team's assistant coach Mohammad Salahuddin. The presumed reason behind his inclusion was his unique profile as a left-arm leg-spinner.

Bangladesh are in Group A of the Champions Trophy, slotted alongside three former champions: India, Pakistan and New Zealand. Interestingly, out of the three, only India have a left-arm leg-spinner in their ranks in Kuldeep Yadav.

So, the Bangladesh think tank went out of their way to prepare the batters for the challenge they will face against Kuldeep in the India clash on February 20 in Dubai. However, in that match, Kuldeep will not be the only spinner that the batters would have to deal with.

Out of the eight participating teams in the tournament, India are the only side who have named a spin-heavy team. They have five spin-bowling options in their 15-man squad -- three spin-bowling all-rounders in Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar and Axar Patel -- and two spinners in Varun Chakravarthy and Kuldeep.

With star pacer Jasprit Bumrah out with a back injury, India brought in pacer Harshit Rana. However, India also made the interesting choice of dropping batter Yashasvi Jaiswal to bring in Varun, a move to further strengthen their spin-bowling reserves.

As India will not travel to Pakistan for the tournament, all of their matches will take place at the Dubai International Stadium, which was one of the three venues in the recently concluded ILT20, and perhaps the Indian management is hoping that the pitches would be worn out, allowing their spinners to dictate terms.

In their last ODI assignment before the Champions Trophy, India played three spinners in all three matches against England, trying out different combinations of the five spinners.

As Bangladesh are likely to play three left-handers in the top three -- Tanzid Tamim, Soumya Sarkar and Najmul Hossain Shanto -- chances are that India would include Washington or Varun as a right-arm spinner, Axar or Jadeja as the left-arm spin-bowling all-rounder, and then Kuldeep as the wrist spinner, meaning Bangladesh batters would have to deal with at least 30 overs of quality spin bowling.

Bangladesh, on the other hand, have three genuine spin-bowling options in their squad: Mehedi Hasan Miraz, Rishad Hossain and Nasum Ahmed.

The Tigers have lately banked more on their pace attack, who have delivered for them, but in Dubai, Bangladesh might have to revert to the old days and field a spin-heavy team if the conditions demand so.

Bangladesh had their first taste of the conditions yesterday when they had their first training session in Dubai at the ICC Academy. They will play a warm-up game in Dubai on Monday against Pakistan Shaheens, which will give them a chance to better gauge the conditions.

However, the chances of a trial by spin waiting for Bangladesh in their tournament opener are really high.