Sports Desk:

Bangladesh team strength and conditioning Coach Nathan Kiely said on Tuesday that the team will be physically ready to cope with the UAE heat next September when Litton Das’s side takes part in the Asia Cup T20.

“Absolutely, yeah,” he said after an intense training session at the Mirpur Sher-e-Bangla Stadium when asked about the conditioning of the players ahead of the home series against the Netherlands, followed by the Asia Cup in the UAE.

“Our boys worked extremely hard. I think evidence today—if you saw some of the conditioning that we did—there were some really challenging drills. If you didn’t think they were challenging, I’d welcome you to come and do them with us one day. You’ll find out. Their attitude and their effort are outstanding. They push themselves extremely hard,” he said.

Nathan also pointed out the challenges he faces regarding scheduling. “The biggest challenge for us is finding opportunities to do big chunks of physical work, which we don’t have the benefit of—like in England or in Australia, where they have a big sort of 15-week pre-season for their players, regardless of whether they are domestic or international,” he said.

But Bangladesh do not have that kind of window, as they play a lot of bilateral cricket in a short period of time. However, Nathan has his way of keeping the players fit despite the scheduling challenges.

“So we only get little small windows, so we’re constantly fighting that battle of trying to get physical work in wherever we get those opportunities, yeah,” he said.