The Bangladesh national cricket team is currently carrying out constant practice sessions in New Zealand. First training session was held in Christchurch, then the second training session happened in Queenstown at the end of the quarantine.
The players of the touring New Zealand squad will play a warm-up match in a five-day training camp at the John Davis Oval in Queenstown. The cricketers will play this one-day warm-up match at 4 am Bangladesh time on Tuesday.
Bangladesh team had to quarantine for two weeks as per New Zealand government directions but they have been able to roam freely around the country following the end of quarantine. While it was stern mission initially to follow the protocols, the Tigers adjusted well and got through it with ease.
Meanwhile, Tigers strength and conditioning coach Nicholas Lee said that the time they spent in quarantine was a blessing in disguise while also restating that the team are more eager on being physically fit.
The Tigers are currently in Queenstown and on Monday they worked at the gym. Lee said that the players were all upbeat about being physically fit.
“Most of the squad members have no complaints. They try very hard and do what's asked of them. I think they are now starting to understand that in this day and age it is extremely significant to be physically fit because of the travelling and the matches are often overfilled into a short space of time. So, you do need to be on top of your fitness work. This will help you to recover between matches and keep playing at that high intensity whole year round,” he said in a video interview on Monday.
“Fitness and fun is exciting. Most of the players are liking the physical training. If you can keep fresh with new ideas, it actually helps take their mind of the pressures of the day-in-day-out skills training,” he added.
While quarantining was tough, Lee added that it may have helped the players adapt and now they are doing some of their best work since moving to Queenstown.
“The extra time we have spent in the country might be a blessing in disguise because it actually allows us to build in to the matches a bit slower than the original schedule. We were actually able to do quite a bit of training work while in quarantine. During practice they also had access to fields to top-up their running and sprint work. Once we came to Queenstown, the players were actually able to ramp up again. The facilities are excellent here,” Lee said.