Five opt for training

While most of Bangladesh's national cricketers preferred spending time with their families the day after securing the historic series win yesterday, five of them though decided to attend the optional training session in the afternoon.

The session was attended by Soumya Sarkar, Nasir Hossain, Mominul Haque, Abul Hasan and Rony Talukdar. While the session at Mirpur was mainly organised to keep the players who didn't play the second ODI in their groove, Soumya and Nasir though decided to join in.

Young Soumya has been finding life slightly difficult as an opener. Generally a free-flowing player who loves to use his feet, the left-hander got out in a manner that was quite unlike him. He swung his bat at a back-of-a-length delivery with his legs stuck at the crease. The result was inevitable; an edge to the keeper.

Among all the positives that have churned out for the Tigers in the last few days, Soumya's batting may be one area of concern for the hosts.

The other batsman who hasn't managed to hit form as yet is Mahmudullah Riyad. While he was by far Bangladesh's best batsman in the World Cup, he failed to click in the first two ODIs. The concern isn't merely the fact that Riyad got out, but it was the way that the top-order batsman ended both his innings.

In the first ODI he had gone down the track to heave one in a bid to release pressure. The slower delivery though got him bowled.

The second ODI witnessed a similar happening. He attempted an unnecessary sweep off Saeed Ajmal only for the ball to hit the timber.