“My body shut down”: Aussies feel the heat in Bangladesh
The Bangladeshi weather is proving challenging in more ways than one for Australia’s Test squad, with allrounder Glenn Maxwell suffering heatstroke during training.
Glenn Maxwell, left, during a practice session this week with David Warner and Usman Khawaja in Dhaka. Photo: A.M. Ahad / AP
Maxwell has revealed he fell ill during the first day of training in Dhaka ahead of the first Test starting on Sunday.
The local monsoon season has made for punishing weather, with periodic rain and thunderstorms giving way to sweltering heat and humidity.
“I copped a bit of heatstroke on the first day, which wasn’t a good start,” Maxwell said yesterday.
“I think just doing some running outside, then I had to go inside to do some fitness testing, and going back outside probably didn’t help too much.
“Basically, my body shut down a little bit but I was fine after a bit of an ice bath and plenty of fluids.”
Steve Smith’s men had a light training session yesterday, with a waterlogged ground having earlier forced the cancellation of a tour match on the outskirts of Dhaka.
It was a different story on Tuesday when the squad trained in the heat for almost three hours, pushing pacemen Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins and Jackson Bird to the point of exhaustion.
“Yesterday was obviously pretty tough,” Maxwell said.
“Obviously with the morning rain and the overnight rain, I think all the moisture’s coming out of the ground and making it quite sweaty work for us.
“But it’s been good. We’ve got a lot out of the last few days, basically putting on the finishing touches for day one.”
Australia’s disrupted preparation has raised questions about their level of readiness to face an improving Bangladeshi side which has proven tough to beat on home soil.
But Maxwell said the squad’s pre-tour training camp in tropical Darwin had been more than ample preparation.
“The way we prepared in Darwin, I think the wickets were perfect,” he said.
“Even coming here and having a couple of hits on these wickets, it’s very similar to what we were facing in Darwin, if not a little bit easier I suppose in the nets.
“We put extreme conditions in Darwin with the wickets where we made them ridiculously tough to bat on, and guys tested themselves really well during that week.
“I think the guys are more than well-equipped to handle whatever comes at us in this first Test.”
-AAP
