The fifth round of the National Cricket League drew to a mild close after yesterday's fourth day yielded two draws of contrasting natures.

On his first assignment as Bangladesh head coach, Steve Rhodes witnessed a calamitous collapse that ended in the Tigers being bundled out for just 43 runs -- their lowest ever score in Tests -- in Antigua during the tour of West Indies in July this year.

There were high hopes of Bangladesh's fast bowlers since the arrivals of Al-Amin Hossain and Taskin Ahmed in 2014 and the emergence of Mustafziur Rahman, who took the world by storm in mid-2015. Three years on, only Mustafizur apart has to lived up to the initial hype.

With Shakib Al Hasan out of the Test series against Zimbabwe as he is still recuperating from an injury, Mahmudullah Riyad will guide the Tigers in the upcoming series. Bangladesh coach Steve Rhodes has worked with three different captains so far and he listed the attributes of each one and what it felt like working with Shakib, Mashrafe Bin Mortaza and Riyad.

Bangladesh ace all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan, currently recuperating from a finger injury, was granted No Objection Certificate (NOC) by Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) to play in the inaugural Emirates T20 league known as the 'UAE T20X' tournament.

Khulna duo Tushar Imran and Abdur Razzak are the stalwarts of Bangladesh’s first-class arena. The duo has shown great drive to cement their names in Bangladesh’s domestic cricket and Mohammad Mithun, who was included in the Test squad for the series against Zimbabwe said that Tushar and Razzak’s drive and urge to play well inspires him all the time.

Mohammad Mithun, one of Bangladesh’s four new inclusions in the Test squad values Test cricket highly and he said that being able to find success in Test cricket will give him a sense of fulfillment.

The Bangladesh cricket team lost both Shakib Al Hasan and Tamim Iqbal to injuries during the Asia Cup in the United Arab Emirates, however, the duo could return to action in the upcoming home series against West Indies.

The first youth one-day match between Sri Lanka under-19 and Bangladesh under-19 was abandoned due to rain at Dambulla yesterday.

Bangladesh wicketkeeper-batsman Mushfiqur Rahim may be back to keeping during the first Test against Zimbabwe. In Bangladesh's

As incessant rain barred even a ball being bowled for the second consecutive day at two venues, the two other matches of the fifth round of the National Cricket League moved apace at Rangpur and Bogura yesterday.

Imrul Kayes did not play a match during the two-Test series in West Indies in July this year. The 31-year-old left-hander, who played his last Test against Sri Lanka in Mirpur in February this year, failed to score even a fifty in his last 16 innings since making 78 against

Mehedi Hasan Miraz exuded confidence about taking a leadership role in the spin attack in the absence of the injured Shakib Al Hasan against the visiting Zimbabweans in the first Test starting on November 3, which will also be the first to be played at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium.

The visiting Bangladesh under-19 team will take on Sri Lanka in the first of a five-match youth ODI series at the Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium today.

Dhaka Metropolis skipper Marshall Ayub's move to declare their first innings on 59 for eight against Dhaka Division at the Shaheed Chandu stadium in Bogura yesterday was the highlight of the first day of the fifth round of the National Cricket League.

Zimbabwe have announced their team for the two-match Test series against Bangladesh, which will begin with the first Test in Sylhet from November 3.

With a majority of the franchises already having picked players outside the draft and retained a few from the previous season, the players' draft of the sixth edition of the Bangladesh Premier League at a Dhaka hotel yesterday lost some of its charm.

Khulna Division will surely enjoy the services of form batsman Soumya Sarkar in their four-day match against Barishal Division at the Sheikh Kamruzzaman Stadium in Barishal when the fifth round of the National Cricket League gets underway across the country today.

It was a different sort of homecoming to Sylhet for pacer Khaled Ahmed after he learned that he was included in the Bangladesh Test squad for the two-match series against Zimbabwe.

Mohammad Ashraful, who was made available for selection in the BPL players’ draft has been picked up by Chattogram outfit Chittagong Vikings.