Two Aussie greats to enliven todays high voltage match
Sports Reporter, Dhaka
BPL 2015 champions Comilla Victorians will lock horns with Sylhet Sixers on the second days first match of the sixth-edition UCB-BPL T20 Cricket Tournament at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium (SBNCS) in Mirpur at 12:30pm today.
Even though itll be fight between Victorians and Sixers, the match got novelty for much-sought after players -David Warner and Steve Smith- the Australian veteran duo, who was suspended for a year each for their involvement in ball-tempering scam that rocked the cricketing world last year, will make their maiden appearance in BPL.
They will play against each other in the match where Warner will lead the Sixers and Smith will get down for the Victorians. Warner arrived here in Bangladesh much earlier than Steve.
After being land here in Dhaka on Friday, Steve Smith elapsed a hectic day at the National Academy of the SBNCS, where he held the first training session with his Victorians teammates. Despite having a brief batting session at nets, the master class batsman opted to have an individual flair what was obvious after completing his well-drilled fielding session, suggesting that he was out to prove his mettle.
The enthusiast sports reporters asked Smith whether he enjoyed the session with his teammates on the opening day while he was leaving the ground. He simply answered that was really praiseworthy from a stature like this Australian player.
Oh, its a fantastic day and I thoroughly enjoyed it, Smith said with smile, adding that naturally he wants to win the tournament for Victorians.
Comilla Victorians still have a stronger side despite losing five top-notch players due to the Big Bash League, including leg-spinner Rashid Khan and English batsman Jos Buttler as they recruited the players the likes of globe-trotting Evin Lewis and Shoaib Malik.
Overall, Im happy especially this year with our team because weve good players in every area of the team. All the foreign players already arrived. We all held together our training session today. I think, this year weve got a well-balanced team, Victorian batsman Imrul Kayes said.
The beginning is the most important. Those who play at domestic circuits all we know each other. Even the foreign players, who are playing in BPL, are known less or more. So, there will be no problem to formulate our plan what well do after consulting with coach and captain, Imrul told media after their pre-match day practice session yesterday.
Steve Smith came yesterday. He behaved with us in such way that we had acquaintance with him so long. Hopefully there will be no problem with him. He is a professional player, I think, could adjust with all. We all help him as much as possible for our teams betterment, he said of Steve Smith.
Sylhet Sixers, on the other hand, will largely bank on the service of David Warner but there are some few players in the squad the likes of Liton Kumar Das, Sabbir Rahman and Nasir Hossain under their belt, the players who all can change the course of the game on the back of their own skills.
Fit-again fast bowler Taskin Ahmed, promising Afif Hossain, Towhid Hridoy, Jaker Ali, Ebadat Hossain and Mehidy Hasan Rana are also their option.
Top-ranked leg-spinner Imran Tahir, Nicholas Pooran, Sohail Tanvir, Mohammad Irfan and Andre Fletcher among the overseas players add T20 experience in the groove.
