Sports Desk:

Bangladesh national cricket team on Friday began their training camp for the impending India series after the turmoil between the striking players and the Bangladesh Cricket Board had put the whole tour under threat.

The protesting first-class players had called-off their boycott on Wednesday night, after the BCB president Nazmul Hasan assured to fulfil their most of the demands and began their training camp for the India series at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur as previously scheduled.

Bangladesh’s Twenty20 skipper Sakib al Hasan was the only player not present at the training session due to a fever with the remaining members of the 14-man squad for the T20 series taking part in the session.

In-form opener Imrul Kayes, who was a stand-by player for the series, also joined the camp with doubts over Tamim Iqbal’s participation in the initial part of the tour due to his child’s birth.

Kiwi veteran and Bangladesh’s bowling consultant Daniel Vettori stole the limelight on the opening day’s training as he joined the Tigers’ coaching staff for the first time after reaching Dhaka at 10.30 am on the same day.

Bangladesh head coach Russell Domingo, who also landed in Dhaka on Friday, also wasted no time as he headed to Mirpur to attend the training camp.

The former Kiwi captain observed his charges on his first day at the job and gave some throw downs for the players.

BCB roped in Vettori as national team’s bowling consultant in July this year for 100 days and his tenure will begin from the India series and end at the 2020 ICC Twenty20 World Cup in Australia.

Left-arm spinner Arafat Sunny, who made a comeback to the national team squad after almost three years, was ecstatic with the inclusion of former left-arm spinner Vettori in the coaching panel and hailed him as one of the greatest left-arm spinner.

‘As a left-arm spinner, I always followed his bowling. He is a great among the left-arm spinners. He is my coach now,’ Sunny told reporters in Mirpur.

‘He just saw me bowl today [Friday], as it was the first day. He was observing everyone’s bowling. Maybe tomorrow [today] or in the next practice session he will discuss things with us,’ he said.

Vettori is no stranger to Indian conditions, having played 31 matches across three formats in the country taking 51 wickets and also coaching the Indian Premier League side Royal Challengers Bangalore for five seasons.

Sunny hoped to use Vettori’s wealth of experience to penetrate to strong Indian batting line-up.

‘He has played a lot of matches in India. He is also coaching there. So he understands the wickets there much better than us. How the different wickets will play, how we can perform better there, I will try to take ideas about these things from him,’ Sunny said.

Bangladesh will play a three-match Twenty20 and a two-match Test series against the neighbouring nation, with the T20 series beginning on November 3.

The Tigers are expected to leave home on October 30.