Individual Practice: Cricket Returns to Its Home

Cricket has finally made its comeback to the home of cricket- Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium on Monday as Mushfiqur Rahim, Shaiful Islam and Mohammad Mithun attended an individual practice session.

This comes after a long suspension of 4 months due to coronavirus pandemic.

Not just in Sher-e-Bangla, individual training of Nurul Hasan Sohan and Mahadi Hasan took place in Sheikh Abu Naser Stadium in Khulna while Khaled Ahmed and Nasum Ahmed trained in Sylhet International Stadium. Nayeem Hasan was scheduled to practice Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram, but rain interrupted his practice on Monday.

Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) discouraged players to train outdoors during this pandemic. Despite that, nine cricketers had applied to BCB to provide the facilities to train alone. BCB responded to them positively after the preparation of a few weeks.

''I was unable to run for a long time during the lockdown. I tried on the stairs of my home, but it was risky for the knees. This is the first time I ran a long time- 30 minutes,'' Shafiul Islam, the right-arm pacer told media, after ending this maiden individual practice session in the time of coronavirus.

Right-handed middle-order batsman Mithun said it was tough to run and bat after four months. He said it requires a few more days to get things normal.

''We got the chance to practice in the field after four months. It's great. But it feels tough to run or bat now because we were stuck at home for a long time. I hope everything will be normal in the next few days,'' Mithun told the media.

Meanwhile, at least 14 international matches of Bangladesh have been postponed due to coronavirus including five Tests which are part of the ongoing World Test Championship.

All of these matches are slated to be rescheduled for future dates.