adminHARARE. — The national training squad has intensified preparations for the upcoming tour of Bangladesh, with a spin camp that started yesterday at the Harare Sports Club.
The camp is to drill players on how to handle the spin-friendly conditions they will face on the sub-continent.
A few players missed the start of the spin camp due to injury.
Tawanda Mupariwa is nursing a knee injury sustained during the Zimbabwe A tour to Bangladesh, while fellow seamer Donald Tiripano is set to have a scan on a sore back. After their spin camp, the squad of 26 players and seven technical staff will travel to Triangle on Friday to play a four-day match.
The Lowveld conditions they will experience during the match from Saturday to Tuesday will help prepare them for what they will face in Bangladesh. They will then return to Harare on Wednesday and leave for Dhaka the next day.
The tour of Bangladesh will be Zimbabwe’s longest in more than a decade, as it has three Test matches and five ODIs.
Since the country’s phased return to Test cricket, after deliberately suspending fulfilling those commitments to give their side enough experience in the longest version of the game, Zimbabwe has been playing one-off Test matches.
Their away tours have also had a maximum of three ODIs.
Zimbabwe to Bangladesh 2014 Itinerary
Three-day game in Fatullah, 20 to 22 October
First Test in Dhaka, 25 to 29 October
Second Test in Khulna, 3 to 7 November
Third Test in Chittagong, 12 to 16 November
One-day practice match in Chittagong, 19.
November
First ODI in Chittagong, 21 November
Second ODI in Chittagong, 23 November
Third ODI in Mirpur, 26 November
Fourth ODI in Mirpur, 28 November, and
Fifth ODI in Mirpur, 01 December — Zimcricket.
Online Reporter