Corey Richards gets additional coaching role

Bangladesh's newly appointed fielding coach, Corey Richards, will also act as the team's batting coach in the interim, while the BCB looks to appoint someone permanently for the role ahead of the Sri Lanka tour. The BCB had said they were searching for a batting coach "from England", but this has not yet materialised and is likely to take more time.

"At the moment I will be looking after [the] batting. It will be [a] dual role," Richards said. "I have done [the batting coach role] before. I am looking forward to mixing both roles in the side until the BCB tells me otherwise. I am just very excited to be here and work with this group of youngsters."

Richards' last assignment was as a batting coach for Cricket New South Wales (NSW) over the past two years. He was also the assistant coach to the Sydney Sixers for the past two seasons. Last year, he was the head coach of the team when they won the Champions League in South Africa, as regular coach Trevor Bayliss was with the Kolkata Knight Riders at the time.

"I haven't had a technical role such as [being] the fielding coach before, but [when you are] the assistant or head coach of a team, you need to know [these] three fundamentals of the game.

"Technically I haven't had this title [at an international level] yet, but I have done a lot of work with the NSW team and the Sydney Sixers [in a similar role]," he said. "I think I have got the requirements and experience to hopefully do a good job."

The BCB will rely on Richards' experience for now, but they also have another position to fill, as Stuart Karppinen, the team's trainer will no longer be travelling with the team to Sri Lanka. The BCB are looking for someone to fill this role, or they will have to send a local trainer on the tour.

Bangladesh are set to leave for Sri Lanka on February 28, ahead of which they have a short camp at the Shere Bangla National Stadium, which began on Wednesday with 13 players out of the 25 in the preliminary squad. The Bangladesh players who were in the BPL final will join the squad on February 22.