The Bangladesh national team are about to venture into a hectic schedule of international fixtures as they prepare to participate in the five-match T20I series against Australia in the span of only eight days, starting from August 3.
Previously the Tigers travelled to Zimbabwe in the first week of July, right after taking part in the month-long Dhaka Premier League T20 competition, amid few injury concerns in the team.
During the Zimbabwe tour, the Tigers played seven international games -- a Test match followed by a three-match ODI and a three-match T20I series -- in just 17 days.
ODI skipper Tamim Iqbal had to miss the Test match as he had been struggling with his knee injury. Although Tamim managed to take part in the ODI series despite tackling pain, the left-hander eventually had to return home ahead of the T20I series and was prescribed to rest for at least two months. This meant that he had to be ruled out for the upcoming Australia series along with the New Zealand and England series as well.
Left-arm seamer Mustafizur Rahman also suffered an ankle injury during the warm-up game ahead of the Test series against Zimbabwe which led to the pacer missing out a majority of the matches in tour.
Liton Das, who is also ruled out for the upcoming Australia series, opted himself out after the series due to personal reasons before which, he suffered a thigh injury during the first T20I in Zimbabwe.
It is bound to be a daunting task for the Tigers to remain fit and also juggle with the workload keeping the compressed schedule ahead. Moreover, New Zealand are expected to arrive in early September to play five T20Is before England travel for three T20Is and three ODIs.
A Bangladesh Cricket Board official, requesting anonymity, said, "Obviously it's a huge challenge for the cricketers and to make things even tougher, the prolonged stay inside the closed environment of the bio-secure bubble makes it difficult to avoid fatigue and maintain focus, both mentally and physically.
"In any sport, injuries are part of the game and we don't want to overthink in this regard. But yes, we are trying to manage everyone's workload keeping the tight schedule in mind and the players are also aware of it. This is another reason behind our attempt to create a bigger pool of cricketers so that we can rotate them accordingly."
