All the members of the Bangladesh national team have tested negative for Covid-19 in New Zealand, said Khaled Mahmud, the team director touring with the Bangladesh team.
As all the players are now free from the virus they will be allowed to join practice sessions outside from Tuesday.
“We will start practice sessions from Tuesday at the Lincoln University Ground,” Mahmud said. “We will also get the gym facilities there. And we are now allowed to move to the team hotel and do all normal activities.”
With the negative results of all the players, the doubts over this series have been wiped away. The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) earlier said if any player tests positive and Cricket New Zealand extends the period of quarantine, the series might need to be rescheduled at a later date.
All the Bangladesh players have been going through tight quarantine measures since the home series against Australia and New Zealand ahead of the T20 World Cup— where they also had to stay in a tight bio-bubble. After the World Cup, Bangladesh also maintained a bio-bubble against Pakistan at home.
It was the third Covid-19 for the Tigers in New Zealand. All the players returned negative in the previous two tests as well. However, the spin-bowling coach Rangana Herath tested positive in the second test. He is yet to test negative and get the clearance from the New Zealand health department to join the team.
Bangladesh team was supposed to maintain a three-day quarantine before benign allowed to train outside. But after Rangana tested positive, the quarantine period was extended.
The first Test of the series will begin on January 1 while the second and final Test of the series will commence on January 9.
This is the second series for Bangladesh in the ongoing second cycle of the World Test Championship. The Tigers has started the new cycle of the event with the two-match series against Pakistan at home that they lost 2-0.
Bangladesh will miss the service of Shakib Al Hasan in this series along with Tamim Iqbal. While Shakib is on leave due to family reasons, Tamim is yet to be fit to play international cricket. He has been suffering from several injuries.
Before this series, Bangladesh took on New Zealand in 15 Tests and lost 12 of them with the other three ending up in draws.
Source: United News of Bangladesh