Bangladesh’s Test captain Mominul Haque has said he looks forward to a batting-friendly wicket in Chattogram in the first match against Pakistan beginning Friday, even though his batting unit is not in the best of the form, reports UNB.
It will be Bangladesh’s first match in the new cycle of the ICC World Test Championship. The second Test of the series will be played from 4 December at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Dhaka.
“The wicket looks to be friendly to the batters,” Mominul said in the pre-series press conference on Thursday. “As we have seen before, the Chattogram wickets are so friendly to the batters. We are expecting the same in this series.”
In the last ICC Test Championship, Bangladesh played seven Tests and lost six of them with a draw.
At the beginning of a new cycle of the event, Bangladesh are going to miss the service of the ace all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan and experienced batter Tamim Iqbal.
While Tamim is out of this series entirely, Shakib is going to miss the first Test, and he is also uncertain for the second Test.
Mominul said they still are hoping to pose a strong challenge to Pakistan with the men he already has. But to ensure a good result, according to Mominul, Bangladesh need to play well in all sessions of the match.
“Momentum can change at any moment in Tests,” Mominul said.
“You have to play well in all sessions of the match. If you play well in 12 sessions of the first four days and do badly in the three sessions of the last day, you will lose the match,” he added.
Mominul also said he is going to be stick to his own plan instead of thinking much about what others have to say during the match.
While Bangladesh are missing the service of Shakib and Tamim, they are getting back Mushfiqur Rahim and Liton Das who missed the T20 series.
“Liton’s poor show in T20Is is going to make no impact in Tests. You cannot compare one’s T20I performance with his Test’s. I believe Liton has overcome the bad patch, and he is going to be a great performer for us,” Mominul added.
In the absence of Shakib, Bangladesh is going to field a pace-bowling oriented bowling attack which will be led by Abu Jayed.
Bangladesh has also added to the squad two uncapped pacers -- Rejaur Rahman Raja and Shohidul Islam.
While Rejaur was added when the squad was announced on Monday, Shohidul made it to the Test squad on Thursday when BCB added him along with Khaled Ahmed who played only two Tests earlier.
The absence of Taskin Ahmed has led Bangladesh selectors to add two extra pacers to the squad. Taskin has been doing well since he made to the Test squad last time.
Like Bangladesh, Pakistan are also focusing on their own game instead of thinking much about the opponents. Pakistan captain Babr Azam said Bangladesh will be tough opponents in Tests.
“It’s home for Bangladesh. We cannot take them lightly,” he said on Thursday. “They are going to miss some experienced players. In that sense, they will field a young side. Still, we cannot take them easily. We have to fight hard to beat them.”
As the Asian cricket side, Pakistan is also confident of doing well riding on their spin-bowling attack beside the pace-bowling unit.
“We have an experienced bowling unit mixed with pacers and spinners, and we are expecting a typical Bangladeshi wicket in this Test. I think the spinners will get the most benefit from the wicket, but the pacers also have something at the start of the day,” Babar added.
Bangladesh and Pakistan took on each other in 11 Tests before this series, and Pakistan won 10 of them with only one draw.