Pakistan drop Shaheen Afridi for second Test against Bangladesh

Embattled Pakistan dropped rusty fast bowler Shaheen Shah Afridi for leg-spinner Abrar Ahmed against Bangladesh to try and level the two-Test series from Friday.

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 Jason Gillespie on Thursday.

Last week, Bangladesh recorded an historic maiden Test win against Pakistan in the first Test, also in Rawalpindi. Pakistan crumbled for 146 against the spin of Shakib Al Hasan and Mehidy Hasan Miraz on the fifth and final day and lost by 10 wickets.

"He’s (Afridi) working on some things with his bowling to be as effective as he possibly can be,” Gillespie said. "We certainly want to see Shaheen at his very best, because we know we’ve got a lot of cricket in all formats.”

Afridi looked rusty in his first Test in eight months and had to wait until Pakistan took the third new ball to finish with 2-88 off his 30 overs.

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 its spinners on the final day.

Pakistan were also docked six World Test Championship points by the ICC for its slow rate of overs which left Gillespie unhappy, as the Shan 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 lower order batted around Mushfiqur’s brilliant century; Shadman Islam, Mominul Haque, Das and Mehidy compiled meaningful half-centuries.

"We talked about spending time in the middle, getting their fast bowlers to come and bowl second and third spells,” Sri Lanka coach Chanbdika Hathurusingha said. "Our gameplan was slightly different because the conditions helped a lot to put up a good show with the bat.”

Monsoon rains have limited both teams to only one training session at Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium over the last four days and the new pitch was also mostly kept under the covers.

Hathurusingha said he was wary of a Pakistan fightback but was happy with Bangladesh's high morale going into Friday’s Test.

"The morale is really good because to beat Pakistan in Pakistan is not an easy task,” Hathurusingha said. "We expect a very good fight in the second game as well.”

Pakistan haven’t won a home Test since December 2021. It has gone five straight Test at home without a win; the previous four against New Zealand and Australia were drawn.

Associated Press