Bangladesh eye maiden series win against Afridi-less Pakistan

Bangladesh are hoping to secure a first Test-series victory over Pakistan, who have left out star pacer Shaheen Shah Afridi for the second match starting in Rawalpindi on Friday.

The visitors upset a normally formidable home team with a clinical ten-wicket display in the first Test -- Bangladesh’s first win in over 14 encounters against Pakistan.

But the hosts have been struggling through a lean spell of late, bowing out early in this year’s T20 World Cup. Their last Test series was a whitewash in a three-match tour to Australia.

Star pacer Afridi struggled to find his rhythm through much of the innings, with Pakistan’s head coach Jason Gillespie saying he will be rested to allow him to spend time with his new-born son and family.

“Obviously Shaheen will miss out on this game. We had a good conversation with him and he fully understands and appreciates the thinking behind it. We are just looking at what our best combination is for this game,” Gillespie said.

Pakistan dropped Shaheen for leg-spinner Abrar Ahmed.

Ahmed was surprisingly released before the first Test and played a four-day game against Bangladesh A in Islamabad. He replaced Afridi in the 12-man squad announced by coach Gillespie on Thursday.

“He’s (Afridi) working on some things with his bowling to be as effective as he possibly can be,” Gillespie said.

The greenish-look of the pitch at Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium deceived the home team, and it’s ploy to attack with an all-out pace attack backfired. Bangladesh - led by Mushfiqur Rahim’s 191 - posted a mammoth total of 565 in the first innings and got a vital 117-run lead before rattling Pakistan through their spinners on the final day.

Pakistan was also docked six World Test Championship points by the ICC for its slow rate of overs which left Gillespie unhappy, as the Masood-led side languishes at eighth in the standings just ahead of the West Indies.

“That’s something we did speak about as a whole team because our over-rates were poor in the first test and unacceptable, it’s as simple as that,” Gillespie said.

Pakistan’s top-order batters are struggling, especially captain Masood and Babar Azam. Masood hasn’t scored a century in his last 13 test matches and the left-handed batter scored a couple of half-centuries before Australia swept Pakistan 3-0 in Masood’s debut series as the test captain last year.

Babar has slipped six places to ninth in the latest ICC test rankings after going without a half-century in his last seven test matches. He has a top score of 41 against Australia at Perth late last year. Babar escaped with a pair against Bangladesh in the last test where he was dropped by wicketkeeper Litton Das in the second innings.

In sharp contrast, Bangladesh’s top and and lower order batted around Mushfiqur’s brilliant century; Shadman Islam, Mominul Haque, Das and Mehidy compiled meaningful half-centuries.

Former Australian pacer Gillespie admitted it will be a challenge to square the series.

“We want to go out there and play positive,” said Gillespie, who is in his first series with Pakistan. “It’s about scoring lots of singles and with our bowling, we want to be ruthless and challenging the opposition batters.”

But he backed under-pressure skipper Shan Masood who failed with the bat with six and 14 in the first match, and has lost all four of his Tests as captain.

“Shan is a very positive captain,” said Gillespie.

“He wants to play and win games .... we showed that with our intent in the first game but it didn’t quite work out and that’s credit to our opposition.

“That game is gone, but what we can do is focus on the game starting tomorrow.

‘Morale very good’: Bangladesh head coach Chandika Hathurusinghe was confident his side could recreate their heroics from the first Test.

“The morale of the players is very, very good,” said former Sri Lankan batsmen Hathurusinghe.

“Obviously beating Pakistan in Pakistan is not an easy task.”

Pakistan were rattled by the Bangladesh response to their first-innings total of 448-6, crumbling for a paltry 146 in their second outing.

Agencies