Bangladesh held their last match-condition practice at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium (SBNCS) yesterday to target some players again before the announcement of the final squad for the tour-opening Test.

The squad for the first Test against the top-flight Australia will be formally announced through the press conference at the SBNCS today.

Bangladesh cricket team played an intra-squad practice match at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium (ZACS) in Chittagong following their match-condition practice sessions.

After returning to Dhaka from Chittagong, they yet again started their practice with match-scenario practice. For this they postponed their Dhaka’s intra-squad practice match that was scheduled to take place at the newly-furbished SBNCS on August 17-18.

Now it will be held at the same venue on August 19-20 before playing the one off two-dayer practice match against the tourists at the Khan Shaheb Osman Ali Stadium (KSOAS) on August 22-23.

This time the BCB selection panel like Australia kept their faith on youngster players and so they want to give more chance to them to be grown up as future resource. It will be fully understood after the announcement of the Tigers’ squad.    

The matter is apparently understood when the experienced Mahmudullah Riyad and Mominul Haque have been dropped for the match-scenario practice. They have not seen with the team in last two days though the duo played the intra-squad practice in Chittagong.

Along with them, the selection panel wants to bring some players back against the top-notch Aussie side. Spin all-rounder Nasir Hossain, wicketkeeper-batsman Liton Kumar Das and pacer Shafiul Islam have been kept in the intense match-condition practice sessions beside the intra-squad practice match.  

With the Dhaka Test, the trio could stage a much-anticipated comeback into the Test squad again.

Last time Nasir among them played Test against South Africa in July-August, 2015 whose current imperious form attracted selection panel. He was active more with the bat in the last two-day match-scenario execution.

Even though Liton was in the Test squad against Sri Lanka, he played the first Test but could not perform in Bangladesh’s centenary Test owing to his injury. This time he is lively as batsman and behind the wickets. The 22-year-old right-handed batsman works on his batting skills and techniques with the help of the newly-appointed batting consultant Mark O’Neill.

In contrast, paceman Shafiul Islam unfortunately missed the last three away series for Bangladesh on the trot because of his injury. He was the first choice of the selection panel for those tours but his untimely injury cost him much.

This time he bowls brilliantly and works on variation with the help of the veteran fast bowling coach Courtney Walsh.

This Tigers’ squad has enough bowling variations than the 2006 squad. Besides regular spinners including Shakib Al Hasan, left-arm spinner Mehedi Hasan Miraj and off break Taijul Islam, they have new hope leg-spinner Tanvir Haider, who really bowls well in the final drill and applauded by the head coach Chandika Hathurusinghe.

On the other hand, Australia cricket team took off from Darwin for Dhaka after an 11-year-long hiatus to play the much-awaiting two-match Test series against Bangladesh and is scheduled to arrive yesterday night.

Last time the Australian side came here in Bangladesh to play a bilateral series with the Tigers in 2006. The current Test series initially was scheduled to take place in 2015 but Cricket Australia (CA) had postponed the series at that period due to the security grounds.

Before heading to Bangladesh, the visitors held a week-long training camp in Darwin, the condition which is akin to Indian sub-continent, after being resolved the over month-long standoff of the payment disputes between Cricket Australia and Australia Cricketers’ Association (ACA).

As a part of preparation, the visiting side played an intra-squad match in Darwin, from where they later announced the final squad for the Bangladesh tour. Therefore, the CA selectors picked eight players from Steve Smith XI including Mathew Renshaw, Usman Khawaja, Steve Smith, Glenn Maxwell, Mathew Wade, Mitch Swepson, Josh Hazlewood and Jackson Bird, while the rest six players from David Warner XI including Hilton Cartwright, Peter Handscomb, Ashton Agar, Pat Cummins, David Warner and Nathan Lyon for the Bangladesh tour.

Of them, they picked left-arm spinner Ashton Agar, right-arm offbreak Nathan Lyon and leg-spinner Mitch Swepson to consider the spin-friendly condition for the Tests in Dhaka and Chittagong.