Bangladesh national team cricketers used the newly installed tracks at the Bangabandhu National Stadium (BNS) as part of a fitness drill ahead of the Tigers' home series against Zimbabwe next month.

This was the first time in 19 years that the BNS was used for any national cricketing activities since the country's cricket had moved to the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in 2005.

Almost about 35 cricketers, who are in and around the national side, took part in this fitness drill which has been termed as 'physical performance assessment' and was supervisioned by the national team strength & conditioning coach Nathan Kiely. 

The training started at 6:00am and continued till 7:30am. The cricketers did four laps of running in the newly installed 400m track before partaking in a 40m sprint. The players then returned to the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur for the next part of their training. 

Cricketers, split into two groups, completed the 1600m running drill, with young pacers Nahid Rana and Tanzim Hasan Sakib finishing first in each of their groups respectively.

This fitness drill was done keeping in mind the Tigers' packed upcoming schedule. Bangladesh are set to play eight Tests, three ODIs, and at least 18 T20Is in the next seven months, starting with hosting Zimbabwe for five T20Is in May.

"Through this test, we just got to know the condition of the players. This test has no such thing as pass or fail," said Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) Iftikharul Islam after the training session today. 

Asked why the athletics track at BNS was chosen for this particular training session, Iftikharul said: "We chose the athletics track as there was a matter of measuring the time. There are a number of methods followed internationally, but what we did was follow the 1600m time trial method. Proper timing can be done in the athletics track, so that's the reason. And the players also found it different and it was something new to them, so, that's good as well."