Bangladesh Eye Rebound in Series Opener Against Pakistan
Bangladesh vowed to make a strong comeback by leaving aside the agony of a shocking series defeat to United Arab Emirates (UAE) as they take on Pakistan in the three-match T20 International series
opening game tomorrow (Wednesday) at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore.
The match starts at 9 PM (Bangladesh Time) and will be aired live on T Sports.
While they went to UAE as absolute favourite, this time they will start as underdog, given their track record against Pakistan.
The last time the two teams met in an Asian Games competition where both teams sent their second string side. Still it was considered as an International game. So stat will tell that Bangladesh won the last game
between the two sides.
Overall they met 19 times in International cricket with Pakistan winning 16, most of which came in a dominant fashion. Bangladesh won three including that Asian Games match in Hangzhou, China in 2023.
Apart from that Asian Games victory, Bangladesh's two victories against Pakistan came in 2015 and 2016, both at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur. So apparently, Bangladesh's main team couldn't beat Pakistan since 2016.
However, the main team of the two teams met last time in 2022 World Cup in Adelaide where Pakistan won the game by five wickets, thanks to Shaheen Shah Afridi's brilliant bowling.
Afridi who has been in top form in recently concluded Pakistan Super League (PSL), was rested from the series, so as Babar Azam and Muhammad Rizwan, the two familiar tormentors of Bangladesh.
But all of the Pakistan players who are the part of the squad against Bangladesh did considerably well in the PSL, which is a threatening sign for the visitors.
The Bangladesh had already started their practice session for the Pakistan series, mainly focusing on rectifying the errors they made in UAE.Skipper Liton Das put blame on dew factor as the main reason behind their astonishing series defeat. Dew won't be factor in Lahore as the PSL game suggested.
But still Bangladesh practiced with the wet ball to cope with the dew effect.
It was special practice session, which they did ahead of coming to UAE despite knowing that dew could make the situation adverse for them.
"We are keen to rectify all of the errors in those practice sessions ahead of the first game against Pakistan," BCB director Nazmul Abedeen Fahim who is with the team in Pakistan said.
"The coaching staff will do everything what needs to be done to do well against Pakistan."
Bangladesh also suffered players related blow ahead of the series with pacer Mustafizur Rahman and allrounder Soumya Sarkar being ruled out of the Pakistan series due to injury. Soumya even couldn't play any of the three matches against UAE while Mustafizur joined Delhi Capitals to play IPL after the first match.
Mustafizur, however, received an injury in his last match in IPL. Considering his form and death over bowling skill, his injury is a big blow for a team, which is trying to quell the pain of a shocking series defeat. Pakistan have managed to win only three of their last 13 T20Is, two against minnows Zimbabwe, and slumped to eighth in the T20I rankings since the 2024 T20 World Cup.
In this period, Bangladesh, which are ranked ninth, have won just four of their last 12 T20Is and lost series against lower-ranked United States (2024) and United Arab Emirates earlier this month.
Bangladesh squad: Liton Das (captain), Mahedi Hasan, Tanzid Hasan Tamim, Parvez Hossain, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Najmul Hossain Shanto, Towhid Hridoy, Shamim Patwari, Jaker Ali Anik, Rishad Hossain, Tanvir Islam, Syed Khaled Ahmed, Hasan Mahmud, Tanzim Hasan Sakib and Shoriful Islam.
Pakistan squad: Salman Ali Agha (c), Shadab Khan (vc), Abrar Ahmed, Faheem Ashraf, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Hassan Nawaz, Hussain Talat, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Haris, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Muhammad Irfan Khan, Naseem Shah, Sahibzada Farhan, Saim Ayub.
