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Bryan Murphy exchanges a few words with the journalists and with sheer confidence. Zimbabwe is not taking Bangladesh lightly, not at least in home grounds - Murphy confirms it. But at the same time he thinks his squad, despite having a good number of new faces, has convincing strength to beat the hosts in their own soil. BCB has arranged a conference in Hotel Sonargaon where delegates from both sides attended the journalists.

A 25-year old Murphy thinks captaincy is a challenge for him and this is going to be his first Test as a leader, therefore, he wants to be successful. He hopes that the series could turn out to be very exciting.

The Zimbabwe side is lacking a few better players due to injury blow and some of them are going through bad patches. Alistair Campbell is seen struggling with the bat, which prompted his omission. The whiz kid Hamilton Masakadza has academic exams in front that cut him off the team. Blignaut and Bryan Strang are injured.

Geoff Marsh, one of the rare real cricket brains, knows very little about Bangladesh cricket and says Zimbabwe is still a strong opponent with its new kids. There are lots of talented player there and it is a very challenging job to groom them, as it should be for the future and he enjoys this.

The Bangladesh skipper Naimur Rahman deals the media men with flair - hoping a good fight against their opponents. He looked content that his side had satisfactory practice matches this time before stepping on to the field.

" I can assure we won't come up with the same tragedy as you saw us in Multan and Colombo. We got ample practice matches this time and had quite a bit of playing, which is vital. I think we learnt a lot from our mistakes. I am not sure about the Tests but as for the ODI we are looking forward to getting a win at least."

Al-Sahariar is not a regular opener but he is still Trevor Chappell's first preference in one of the opening slots. He has been given a chance ignoring another regular opener like Mehrab - this is a common belief of the sports journalists. Trevor thinks Al-Sahariar is a better option than Mehrab because the later is presently seen deficient of confidence and concentration.

Naimur looked a bit embarrassed when he was told that his current form is in suspect. However, he refuted this with his customary flamboyant witty remarks. He says he is pulling with quickly and waiting to put a good show.

Mr. Tanzeeb Ahsan Saad is declared as the manager of Bangladesh team for this series. He says that the best eleven would be declared pretty soon.

Bangladesh squad practiced in BNS in the morning and the tourists were seen stretching on the green grass of the same ground at afternoon. The great Andy Flower was the attraction and many bystanders were present to watch him in style. Warm days waiting for Andy!!

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