Cricketers' fitness to be assessed before Asia Cup squad announcement

A special camp featuring 32 cricketers ahead of the Asia Cup and the World Cup is going to start on Monday, said Bangladesh chief selector Minhajul Abedin. These players will be assessed before the announcement of the primary squad for the Asia Cup and a much smaller final squad later. 

Minhajul stated a Yo-yo test on 3 August will have a big say in the squad selection.

While speaking to the reporters in Mirpur on Sunday, he mentioned, "Our fitness camp is going to start. A Yo-yo test will take place on 3 August. We want to see the fitness status of the players. We have selected 32 players who will undergo the Yo-yo test. We'll announce a squad featuring 21-22 players on 5 or 6 August. They will be part of the skill camp for the Asia Cup".

The players have been on leave since the Afghanistan series. While there is no domestic cricket happening, some of the members of the team are playing in overseas franchise leagues. 

"We have to see the [fitness] standard. It's been a long time since the first-class tournaments and the Premier League ended. Some of them were in the [Bangladesh] Tigers' camp, some in the emerging team. So we want to see how they are doing at the moment," Minhajul said.

ODI skipper Tamim Iqbal has undergone an "invasive pain management procedure" in London. The chief selector said they are yet to get an update from the BCB medical team but hopes Tamim will be back after recovering. 

Players who have been playing the franchise leagues are not joining the camp on Monday. Shakib Al Hasan and Litton Das are in Canada playing the Global T20. Afif Hossain is expected to join Litton in his team Surrey Jaguars. Shakib will head to Sri Lanka to play the Lanka Premier League (LPL) where he will be joined by Shoriful Islam and Towhid Hridoy. Taskin Ahmed and Mushfiqur Rahim, who played the Zim Afro T10, will join after a few days' rest.