New-look Kiwis arrive Tuesday

A 20-member contingent of the New Zealand cricket team will arrive in Dhaka on Tuesday to take part in a five-match Twenty20 International series against the hosts Bangladesh, scheduled to start on September 1 at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium.

The tourists left from Auckland Airport on Monday night and they will arrive in Dhaka through a Singapore Airlines flight at 12:05pm BST and join two of their teammates, Finn Allen and Colin de Grandhomme who arrived on August 20 from England, in the team hotel.

New Zealand Cricket has sent a new-look T20I side for the series against Bangladesh as they didn’t keep any of their ICC World T20 squad members during the tour in Bangladesh as well as in their following tour in Pakistan.

New Zealand batsman Henry Nicholls, who is quite a familiar face in their Test and ODI teams but only represented them in five T20Is so far, believed that the series against Bangladesh will be a great opportunity for the touring players.

“I think it’s a great opportunity for the new guys. It will be a new environment and the guys have been performing well in the domestic circuits,” Nicholls said before their departure.

“The series is an exciting opportunity for them and of course for all of us. This is a different condition and it will be a new challenge. And as a group we are looking forward to it,” he added.

Meanwhile, the Bangladesh squad for the series against New Zealand will enter the bio-bubble today alongside the members of the New Zealand contingent.

Bangladesh spin-consultant Rangana Herath and the performance analyst Shrinivas Chandrasekaran, who arrived in Dhaka on Monday, already started their quarantine in the team hotel.

According to the itinerary released by the Bangladesh Cricket Board, both teams will complete a three-day mandatory room quarantine in the team hotel from today and will start their practice on August 27.

However, ace all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan is expected to arrive from the USA on August 25 and he is expected to join his teammates and start the practice session from August 28 after completing a three-day mandatory quarantine.

The matches of the series will take place on September 1, 3, 5, 8 and 10 respectively at the SBNS.

Meanwhile, the NZC Advance team is yet to visit the SBNS as bio-bubble is yet to be formed over there.

BCB officials, however, insisted that they will form the bio-bubble today to welcome the members of the Advance team, who are expected to send a report to NZC after assessing the condition.