The national footballers made their first practice session(closed-door) Monday afternoon at the Bashundhra Kings Arena in the capital ahead of this month's eight-nation South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Championship'2023 in India.

Earlier on Sunday, thirty preliminarily selected booters reported to the team manager Ameer Khan at the Dhaka Hotel Regency & Resort in the city to join the residential training camp of the national football team.

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Bangladesh will play a FIFA International Tier-1 Friendly with Cambodia on June 15 there and will fly for India on June 16 to take part  in 14th SAFF Championship'2023 to be held at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium in the Indian city of Bengaluru from June 21 to July 4.

BFF President Kazi Md Salahuddin visited the day's first practice session to inspire the national  booters and briefed them after the practices.

Addressing the booters, the BFF boss advised them to prepare themselves with strong mentally and go for win in the match,  not to concede defeat before the match.

BFF and AFC EC member Mahfuza Akhter Kiron and BFF acting general secretary Imran Hossain Tushar were also present on the occasion.

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Bangladesh will also make their closed door practices session on Tuesday (June 6) from 4 pm at the same venue.

Earlier, Bangladesh have been drawn in Group B of the SAFF Championship'2023 with top seed and invitee Lebanon, two times champions Maldives and Bhutan while Group A team comprises eight-time champions India, invitee Kuwait, Nepal and Pakistan. 

In the SAFF Championship'2023, hosts India will play their arch-rivals Pakistan in one of the two opening day's matches at 7:30 pm local time on June 21 while invitee Kuwait will face Nepal in the other inaugural day's match at 3:30 pm.

Bangladesh, the champions of 2003, will start their campaign taking on favorite and top seed Lebanon on the following day (June 22) at 3:30 pm at the same venue.

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Bangladesh, who did not overcame the group stage barrier in the last five editions, will play Maldives on June 25 at 3:30 pm and meet Bhutan on June 28 at 7:30 pm in their remaining group matches 

After the round-robin league matches, top two teams from each groups, will play in the semifinals on July 1 while the final billed for July 4.