‘Time spent here might be a blessing in disguise’

Bangladesh's strength and conditioning coach Nicholas Lee said that the time spent in quarantine while in New Zealand was a blessing in disguise while also reiterating that the Tigers are keener on being physically fit.

Bangladesh team had to quarantine for two weeks as per New Zealand government directives but they have been able to roam around freely following the end of quarantine. While it was difficult task at first to follow the protocols, the Tigers adjusted and got through it.

The Tigers are in Queenstown and today worked at the gym. Lee, who was appointed as BCB's head of physical performance last year said the players were all grasping the idea of the advantages of being fit.

"The majority of the squad, I have seen no complaints. They try very hard and do what's asked of them. I think they are now starting to realise that in this day and age it is incredibly important to be physically fit because of the travelling and the games are often congested into a short space of time. So, you do need to be on top of your fitness work so that you can recover between matches and keep playing at that high intensity whole year round," he said in a video interview today.

"Fitness and fun is interesting. Most of the players are enjoying 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 difficult, Lee opined that it may have helped the players acclimatize and now they are doing some of their best work since moving to Queenstown.

"The little bit more 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 conditioning 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. Excellent facilities here," Lee said.

The Tigers will play a warm-up match between themselves tomorrow with a few local players also featuring in both Tamim XI and Najmul XI. Mosaddek Hossain is the only member in the touring party who will not be playing the warm-up game tomorrow after he hurt his knee during fielding practice on the first day.