Tigers head back home

"Destination: Home," wrote Mustafizur Rahman on his Facebook page before boarding a Dhaka-bound flight from Harare today. 

Bangladesh team, who recently completed a successful tour of Zimbabwe where they swept series across all formats, were scheduled to leave the African nation on July 28 and are expected to arrive in Dhaka on July 29. 

Even though Mustafizur mentioned returning 'home', the Tigers, however, will directly head to Hotel InterContinental instead of getting back to their families after landing in Dhaka. The players will have to quarantine for three days at the hotel ahead of their five-match T20I series against Australia next month. 

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has already arranged two home series -- against West Indies and Sri Lanka -- during the coronavirus pandemic, but the cricketers would have to adhere to stricter Covid-19 protocols for their upcoming series against Australia, scheduled to begin on August 3.

The Australian contingent will also arrive in Dhaka from their tour of the West Indies on the same day, July 29, as the Tigers. As a special arrangement due to the coronavirus pandemic, the cricketers will not have to go through the hassle of immigration upon their arrival. Instead, they will directly head towards their hotel, the same one where the Tigers will be staying, with their passports being returned to them after a few days following the completion of the immigration process. 

The hotel that the cricketers will be staying in will not be able to take in any more guests while hosting the cricketers of the two sides and the match officials. In fact, the match officials are already in a 10-day quarantine at the hotel since July 20.

The Australian players will stay in the country for 13 days and the cricketers of both sides will undergo multiple Covid-19 tests during this period.