Pakistan vs Bangladesh 1st Test Location: Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, Rawalpindi
Pakistan vs Bangladesh 1st Test Date: Wednesday, August 21 to Sunday, August 25
BetXchange Pakistan vs Bangladesh 1st Test Odds:
History
Pakistan hosts Bangladesh in a two-Test series over the next couple of weeks that neither team can afford to lose. These countries are both in the bottom half of the World Test Championship table, with Pakistan especially expecting to fare much better than the sixth place they occupy. That is two places better than Bangladesh, with only the West Indies keeping the Tigers off the bottom of the log.
This is the first Test for both since miserable outings in the T20 World Cup. Pakistan was the most disappointing team in the entire competition, failing to make it out of the group stages in one of the bigger shocks in cricket history. Bangladesh at least made it to the Super Eight but failed to get past Afghanistan in a crucial match and fell at that stage.
Pakistan and Bangladesh will both be hopeful that the return of red-ball cricket will see a return to form and winning ways.
Pakistan
The one player Pakistan would call on who will miss this two-Test series is fast-bowling allrounder Aamer Jamal. Jamal had his county contract in England cut short this summer due to a back injury, and he has failed to recover sufficiently from that issue to take his place in the starting XI here.
Pakistan named their team early, perhaps in a bid to quiet the noise surrounding the poor form of some of their stars. Saim Ayub has retained his place at the top of the batting order after making his Test debut against Australia last time out. This means 22-year-old sensation Muhammad Hurraira has no place on the team yet. Hurraira has been tearing it up domestically and was outstanding against a Bangladeshi High Perimance XI recently.
Bangladesh
The civil unrest in Bangladesh has made this already challenging Test series even more difficult for the tourists. They could not train in Dhaka before leaving, as they would typically do, so they had to pick up extra training days in Lahore and Rawalpindi instead. Any change to a routine comes with complications, so the Tigers will likely welcome the start of the Test match and get back to a more familiar routine.
Bangladesh’s issue in the past year has been its batting. Litton Das and captain Najmul Hossain Shanto are both bang out of form, and the selectors let them play their way back instead of dropping them. This puts a lot of weight on the shoulders of Shakib Al Hasan and Mominul Haque to score big while also protecting their wickets.
Look for Bangladesh to feed off their pace bowling. Khaled Ahmed, Shoriful Islam, Nahid Rana, and Hasan Mahmud are all capable of match-winning performances.
Best Bets
Bangladesh has never won a Test against Pakistan. This is their best chance to do so in years, as Pakistan has lost its last three Test matches. I like Al Hasan (33/10) as Bangladesh’s top first-innings batsman and Babar Azam (13/5) to fill the same role for the hosts.
If you want to bet on the outcome, then the odds of Bangladesh make them worth a bet to nothing.
