Following their historic 2-0 clean sweep of Pakistan, the Bangladesh cricket team will depart for India this afternoon, facing a far greater challenge.
During their tour of India, the Tigers will participate in a two-Test series, with the first one starting on September 19 in Chennai, followed by the second one in Kanpur on September 27.
The Tigers will depart the country this afternoon for Chennai, where the first of the two Test series will begin on September 19. The series is part of the ICC World Test Championship.
Following the Test series, Bangladesh will also participate in a three-match T20I series against the hosts.
Bangladesh have never defeated India in the longest format of the game. The closest they came to victory was in Mirpur in December 2022, where they lost by three wickets.
The squad for the India series has one change from that of Pakistan as uncapped wicketkeeper-batter Jaker Ali replaced injured pacer Shoriful Islam.
The Tigers spent a busy day on Saturday as they received the winning bonus for the Pakistan series from the Bangladesh Cricket Board during an event at a city hotel.
Asif Mahmud, advisor to the ministry of youth and sports, handed over a bonus cheque of Tk 3 crore 20 lakh to Bangladesh captain Najmul Hossain Shanto.
BCB president Faruque Ahmed later told reporters that the bonus is part of the agreement between the players and the board.
He also indicated that the players would donate a portion of their bonuses to the anti-discrimination movement and flood victims.
Faruque also hoped that the team鈥檚 performance would improve gradually.
鈥楢s the president and former player, I can say that rather than winning one or two games, if we can raise our performance to a certain level, the team will win consistently. Like in ODIs, where people believe Bangladesh are a strong team. Though we haven鈥檛 done well in the last World Cup.鈥� said Faruque.
Bangladesh will travel without their veteran all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan, who recently was in the UK to play for county side Surrey and would join the team directly in India.
Head coach Chandika Hathurusingha was expected to reach Bangladesh last night from his vacation with his family in Australia.
In addition, the preparation for this series will be different from that of Pakistan. At the time, the red ball specialists went through a long training camp before some of them participated for the A team against their Pakistan counterparts.
But after the Pakistan series, certainly the team will be motivated. They will have the belief too, whatever big the challenge is.
