Eight cricketers off to Nagpur to join Tigers' squad

Eight players left the city on Friday to join the Bangladesh squad in Nagpur in India. They will play in the two-match Test series, reports UNB.
The players are - Saif Hassan, Imrul Kayes, Shadman Islam, Mominul Haque, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Abu Jayed Rahi, Ebadat Hossain and Nayeem Hasan. Saif got the national call for the first time while the others are regular faces in Test cricket.
In the absence of Shakib Al Hasan, Mominul will lead the Tigers in the Test series against the hosts.
The first Test of the series will be played in Indore from November 14 while the second Test will be hosted by Kolkata which will be a day-night affair. Neither Bangladesh nor India have played a day-night Test before. Bangladesh have so far faced India in nine Tests but failed to win any of them. They lost seven Tests and settled for draws in two others. Stand-in captain Mominul hoped that they would put up a big challenge for the hosts in the forthcoming series.
"Cricket is always a challenging game, and the challenge is more when the opponent is India. We are up to take the challenge, and at the same time, we are upbeat to offer them a tough challenge as well," he said.
Bangladesh Test squad: Mominul Haque (Captain), Shadman Islam, Imrul Kayes, Saif Hassan, Liton Das, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mahmudullah Riyad, Md Mithun, Musaddek Hossain, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Taijul Islam, Nayeem Hasan, Mustafizur Rahman, Al-Amin Hossain, Abu Jayed Rahi and Ebadat Hossain.