Bangladesh brace for tough tour of New Zealand

Mashrafe Mortaza, Bangladesh's limited-overs captain, has said their upcoming tour of New Zealand offers a tough challenge for his side because they have played mostly at home in the last two years. That better-ranked teams have often struggled in New Zealand, Mashrafe said, meant that Bangladesh were likely to find it hard as well.

"In the last couple of years, we played mostly at home and won many of those matches too," Mashrafe said. "We have been successful, now it's a different challenge to play outside home. It's a challenge even for established teams to do well in New Zealand. So from that aspect, it is a bigger challenge for us. The New Zealand weather is different from other areas, but we can take the momentum. We can take good memories, which will give us confidence."

Several players from Bangladesh's preliminary squad will leave Dhaka on Saturday for Sydney, where they will have a ten-day training camp before heading for their first tour of New Zealand in nearly seven years.

Mashrafe said the camp, during which they are scheduled to play T20s against BBL sides, will be helpful, similar to their 15-day stay ahead of the 2015 World Cup, and camps in Chittagong and Khulna before the 2016 Asia Cup and World T20.

"It will be good for us to work in Australia. We will live like a family. We will discuss all the problems. This makes it easier to work.

"For example, we did a 15-day camp before the 2015 World Cup in Australia, which helped us a lot though we lost the four practice matches," he said. "Before the World T20s, we trained in Khulna and Chittagong, and that helped us in the first round."

Mehedi Maruf has been added to the preliminary squad. After Maruf had initially done well in the BPL, BCB president Nazmul Hassan had publicly asked the selectors to include him and Shahriar Nafees in the squad.

Bangladesh will play three ODIs, three T20s and two Tests in New Zealand from December 26 to January 24.