Trott's wish comes true, yet he does not see much hope

Afghanistan coach Jonathan Trott might be ecstatic in the morning but in the fading evening he got so disappointed that he thought it was almost impossible for his side to come back. On the previous evening Trott said they may comeback if they wrap Bangladesh for 10 runs and score 500, they would come back in the game.

Amazingly, his charges got the last five Bangladesh wickets for just nine runs to bundle them for 382 early in the morning but Bangladesh bowlers were equal to the task and dismissed Afghans for just 146 before their batters ended the day on 134-1.

As a result, Afghanistan are already trailing by 370 runs with nine Bangladeshi wickets in hand only after the second day on Thursday in their one-off Test match at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium.

“It's gonna be tough. Obviously, the way the pitch's playing as well, it's gonna be tough. So, yeah, you just got a fight to put up as strong a performance as possible with a bit of pride and show a bit of character,” said Trott, who looked pale unlike the first day, at the press conference.

"We're gonna have to ball really well tomorrow morning and then have a mammoth effort with the bat. But anything's possible. We've seen some funny things happen in cricket before, but we are gonna have to play out of our socks," he added.

Afghanistan batting was disappointing as they not only got folded for a lowly total but could survive only 39 overs owing to some rash shots and good bowling from the hosts.

Trott did not give any excuse but believed it was a vital experience for his charges.

"I think a few loose shots. Just lack of sort of game awareness and just general I think rustiness from not playing test match cricket or first-class cricket for a long time. These things sort of happen."

"We haven't had any warm up games either. We've come straight from a series in Sri Lanka. A lot of the players who weren't in Sri Lanka came here and haven't played first class cricket for quite a while, so this is their first time. No excuses."

"Bangladesh played well. We should have done things better but it's a good learning curve or steep learning curve for our players, and hopefully, they could benefit from the experience," said the former English Test batter.

But Trott felt proud about his debutant pacer Nijat Masood. The 24-year-old, who picked up a wicket in the first ball of his career on day one, bowled a spirited spell in the first session on second day to finish with a five-for.

"I think he bowled well. For anybody to get that amount of wickets in a Test match deserves recognition and he must have bowled well, hit the right areas. Admittedly we could have batted a bit better as well, but you know, every time you get a haul of wickets in a test match you deserve to be recognised and celebrated."

Masood, however, became fatigued and had to leave the field early in the innings that saw his team drop their body language and almost conceded the game.

At the end of the day, it was so evident even the super confidence Trott became rather hopeless within 24 hours.