'It’s not ideal': Hathurusingha unhappy with Bangladesh's preparation due to rain ahead of Ireland ODIs

Bangladesh head coach Chandika Hathurusingha voiced his displeasure over the preparation ahead of the ODI series against Ireland.

The Tigers are set to play three ODIs against the Irish in England and this series will be part of the ICC ODI Super League with World Cup qualification points on offer.

The visitors have struggled to regularly train at the Fenners ground in Cambridge due to rain.

Their practice match was also abandoned due to rain.

Away in Chelmsford, there was no training for either side in the lead-up to the series as there was a County Championship match ongoing till 7 May.

The only time they will get a look at the main venue will be on the eve of the match.

"It's a very unique situation since we are playing Ireland in England and normally that doesn't happen. We can't blame anyone and it's the first time. If we knew this, we wouldn't have agreed to this kind of schedule because it's not ideal preparation. We will learn from this one," he told the media on Monday.

He expects it to be a good wicket despite the rain over the last few days.

"Looks like the wicket is very good. Very hard underneath and a little tinge of green and that's because it was covered the last few days due to rain. There was also a match here and they must have covered the wicket. A good wicket at the moment."

While the head coach did not say what team combination he would field in the first ODI, he is happy to have both Shakib Al Hasan and Mehidy Hasan Miraz as all-rounders that can make forming his team easier and give it more depth and flexibility.  

"Actually, he is a genuine batter since he has a Test and an ODI hundred. We can treat him as a genuine all-rounder. We have another genuine all-rounder in Shakib Al Hasan so we are very fortunate in terms of whatever combination we want to go with whether an extra batter or bowler. We will decide tomorrow morning. Any coach will like to have that luxury. We're lucky to have two all-rounders like that in our team."

The 54-year-old Sri Lankan expects Bangladesh to play good cricket this series but wants to keep his players fit and fresh ahead of the Asia Cup and World Cup, especially with the injury to fast bowler Taskin Ahmed in mind. 

"The players are in very good head space. My challenge is to keep them healthy, keep them fit and keep them playing matches. What happened to Taskin is a good eye opener for us in terms of keeping an eye on how much cricket they play and how to keep them fit for big tournaments like the Asia Cup and World Cup."

But given that the conditions in England are going to be different from those in India where the World Cup takes place, Hathurusingha admits there is not much he can experiment with to try to better prepare for the tournament apart from winning the series.

"In this series, not much since we are not playing in similar conditions to India. We will focus on winning the series in these conditions. Not much looking into the World Cup due to the conditions," he concluded.