England to tour Bangladesh in October

The England cricket team is all set to end their long wait of playing in Bangladesh after the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) confirmed that the two teams will face off against each other in three ODIs and two Tests this October. The month-long visit to Bangladesh is seen as an ideal preparation for the visiting England side who will then head to India for what will be a gruelling 5-match Test series.

This will be England’s first visit to Bangladesh since 2010 and though the visitors had an easy outing last time winning all but one of the tour’s cricket matches, Bangladesh are a force to be reckoned with, especially in home conditions. England ought to know that well enough having seen their 2015 World Cup campaign effectively brought to an end by the Tigers at the group stages itself.

The likes of India, Pakistan and South Africa have felt the heat of the Bangladeshi side which enjoy a vociferous support from the home crowd and the emergence of a certain Mustafizur Rahman has certainly added a lot of potency to the Bangladeshi pace attack. As such, England are leaving no stone unturned in their preparations and will arrive in Bangladesh on September 30, well ahead of their first and only warm-up one-dayer in Fatullah on October 4.

The three ODIs follow, with the first two matches being played at Dhaka's Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium, on October 7 and 9 respectively before the series closes off at Chittagong's Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium on October 12. Only a solitary day of rest has been provided for before England starts their preparations for the Test matches with two back-to-back two-day warm-up matches, both of which will be played at the same venue as the final one-dayer.

The south-eastern city of Chittagong also plays host to the first Test which begins from October 20 before the action returns to Bangladesh’s most famous cricketing venue at Mirpur for the second Test which will kick off on October 28. The England will be flying to India on November 2.

Bangladesh, who have only played T20 cricket in 2016 thus far, will incidentally be playing their first Test matches since July 2015 when they come up against England as Australia had called off their scheduled tour of Bangladesh in October last year.

The full schedule of the tour is as follows:

Sept 30: England to arrive in Dhaka

Oct 4: Warm-up one-dayer, Fatullah

Oct 7: 1st ODI, Dhaka

Oct 9: 2nd ODI, Dhaka

Oct 12: 3rd ODI, Chittagong

Oct 14-17 Two two-day warm-up matches, Chittagong

Oct 20-24: 1st Test, Chittagong

Oct 28-November 1: 2nd Test, Dhaka