Bangladesh is pinning its hopes on all-rounder and former lawmaker Shakib Al Hasan to “do something special” against pace-heavy Pakistan in the opening Test of the two-match series, starting on Wednesday.

“(Shakib) played this game for so long, so he knows his role,” Bangladesh captain Najmul Hossain Shanto said on the eve of the first Test match at Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium.

“He knows how to prepare himself, so I am not thinking about his political career and I hope he will do something special in this series. He’s a professional cricketer and we all treat him as a cricketer, to be very honest.”

Bangladesh’s most accomplished all-rounder, spin great Shakib was playing in the T20 league in Canada during political turmoil in his country back home.

Shakib is Bangladesh’s key all-rounder with 4,505 runs in 67 Tests and as a spinner got 237 wickets — the most of any Bangladesh bowler in Test cricket.

Bangladeshis in Dhaka protested over Shakib’s continued inclusion in the team, with former Bangladesh Cricket Board member Rafiqul Islam criticising him for staying silent as protesters died in clashes with security forces.

Shakib joined the squad in Pakistan last week, after featuring in the Global T20 League in Canada, where Bangladeshis also chanted slogans against him.

The unrest hampered preparations and Bangladesh flew to Pakistan four days ahead of schedule to get an additional three days of training in Lahore.

Rawalpindi will host both the Test matches.

The series is part of the World Test Championship in which Pakistan are  languishing at No. 6 spot while Bangladesh are at No. 8, above last-place West Indies.

Pakistan have an impressive Test record against Bangladesh, winning all but one of the 13 matches. The teams drew at Khulna in Bangladesh in 2015.

Shanto said it won’t be easy for Bangladesh against a four-pronged pace Pakistan pace attack, led by Shaheen Shah Afridi and Naseem Shah. And Pakistan pacers have happy memories of Rawalpindi. Four years ago, a hat trick from Shah helped Pakistan to inflict a crushing innings and 44 runs defeat on Bangladesh.

Shanto, who was among Shah’s hat-trick wickets in that 2020 Test, said “it’s not going to be easy,” but remained hopeful.

“We have a very good balanced side and we believe we can do some special things this time,” he said on Tuesday.

The series will be the first Test for Pakistan’s new red-ball head coach Jason Gillespie of Australia.

Pakistan were swept 3-0 by Australia in the last Test series it played eight months ago. That was also Shan Masood’s debut test series as Pakistan captain.

“There were some mistakes that we made that cost us probably the Melbourne and Sydney test matches,” Masood said. “But as a team, we were heading in the right direction, so that’s something that we’ll take with us.”

Masood said results in the domestic matches at Rawalpindi have encouraged him to go with all-out pace attack that also features fast bowlers Khurram Shahzad and Mohammad Ali in the playing XI.

“You have to be very flexible and you have to adapt and adopt different conditions,” Masood said. “I feel in Rawalpindi … the conditions have favored the seamers and the batters, spin bowling hasn’t been such a big threat.”

Agencies