Bangladesh to play two T20Is against UAE ahead of T20 World Cup 2022

After a horrifying year in terms of T20 cricket, Bangladesh would want to turn things around in the upcoming T20 World Cup in Australia. With that in mind, the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has arranged a two T20Is for the team against the United Arab Emirates (UAE) before they travel to New Zealand for the tri-series against the host nation and Pakistan.

It is not just about a couple of T20Is, as Bangladesh will organise a preparatory camp in the gulf nation as well. The motivating factor behind this decision is a week-long rain that disrupted Bangladesh’s training. Even though the dates are not officially announced, the matches are lilely to be played in Dubai on September 25 and 27 respectively. 

“We have finalised our preparation camp that was expected to be held abroad. The main thing was that our team preparation was interrupted due to weather condition and as a result we planned it that way (preparing outside Bangladesh) and we discussed about it with one or two member countries and decided that we will be having a camp in UAE,” Nizamuddin Chowdhury, the chief secretary of the Bangladesh Cricket Board, told reporters in Mirpur on Thursday.

“Bangladesh and UAE will play a two-match T20I series and we are working on it. We are expected to depart on September 22 and return (back home) on 28 and during this time frame we want to have a few practice sessions along with two T20I against UAE," he added.

Match practice is more important than conditions: Nizamuddin

It is not a secret that the pitches in UAE are not similar to the pitches of Australia but the chief secretary believes that they have no other viable option. Nizamuddin clarified that they are now focusing more on match practice than thinking about the conditions that will be available.

“More than condition, what is more important is that we could not practise here due to weather conditions and taking this into consideration team management planned it that way. More than condition, what is more important is that we can have a match scenario practice session along with availing the facilities that are there in Dubai,” said the official.

“Dubai is not far and apart from the facilities what we feel is that if we can play two extra matches before going to a major tournament it will certainly help as the preparation will be much better,” he added.