Bangladesh Under-19 cricket team left for Durban in the early hours of Sunday by a flight of Qatar Airways to play a reciprocal series against the hosts South Africa.
Earlier in April, Bangladesh hosted the Proteas youths for a seven-match series where the home side thumped the visitors 6-1.
All the matches will be held at two different venues of Durban and Pietermaritzburg. Nazmul Abedin Fahim, national manager of BCB Game Development, stated this at a press conference at media centre of Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium on Saturday.
“We’ve set a two-year plan, which we formulated after the last World Cup. As part of the plan, the boys are heading to South Africa to play a string of matches. Hopefully, it will give them an enormous match-practice preparation ahead of the World Cup,” said Nazmul Abedin.
The young Tigers will begin their campaign with a practice match at the Chatsworth Cricket Oval in Durban on July 2, before the first two matches of the series at Kingsmead on July 5 and 7. The next three matches will be held at City Oval, Pietermaritzburg on July 10, 12 and 14. Bangladesh will heed back to Durban again to play the last two matches of the series at Chatsworth Cricket Oval on July 17 and at Kingsmead on July 19, before returning home on July 21. All matches will begin at 1:00pm Bangladesh time.
Although the U-19 World Cup will be held in Bangladesh next year, skipper Mehedy Hasan believes this tour will give them the opportunity to tinker with the playing combination while facing the current U-19 champions will also help them bag immense experience.
“The condition there will be totally different. The wickets will carry more bounce so we underwent decent practice sessions batting on granite slabs in order to be familiar with the extra bounce. We are confident, given that we have won the series when they last came to Bangladesh two months ago. We know the condition will be tough but I believe the team is well-prepared to take the challenge,” said Mehedy at a press conference on Saturday.
Prior to their Dhaka departure, Bangladesh held a month-long training camp at BKSP, where they took necessary all kinds of preparation to habituate with the pace and bouncy antipodean wickets.
“Keeping the bouncy wickets of South Africa in mind, we practiced on spreading stone-slab. Even we practiced in net making bouncy wickets. Hopefully the preparation has been done well,” Meraj also said.
Bangladesh coach Mizanur Rahman Babul also believes touring South Africa is a great opportunity for the young cricketers.
“Most of these cricketers will represent the Bangladesh team someday so it is good for them to get experienced in the harsh cricket conditions like South Africa. The team is determined to perform well there and I have my confidence in them,” said Babul.
“Actually the match practice is the key whatever the condition it is. If we could win the series in South Africa it will increase our confidence,” Bulbul also said this while replying to a query.
Sajjad Ahmed Shipon, team manager of the U-19 team, was also present at the press conference.
Bangladesh Under-19 squad: Mehedi Hasan Miraz (captain), Joyraz Sheikh, Saif Hassan, Pinak Ghosh, Zakir Hasan, Nazmul Hossain Shanto, Mohammad Saifuddin, Shahanur Rahman, Abdul Halim, Mehedi Hasan Rana, Rifat Pradhan, Sanjit Saha, Saleh Ahmed, Shawon Gazi, Prosenjit Das and Mosabbek Hossain.
