Bangladesh lock horns against neighbours Pakistan the first of three-match One-Day International (ODI) series at Dhaka. Both teams are coming at the back of an average show in theICC Cricket World Cup 2015. Bangladesh scripted history as they made it to the knockout stage of a World Cup for the first time, but Pakistan were knocked out of the tournament at the quarter-final stage by Australia.
Pakistan will be led by Azhar Ali, who was appointed ODI captain after Misbah-ul-Haq decided to retire from the shorter format after the World Cup. This marks a new era in Pakistan cricket and will be interesting to see how they embark on this journey. The hard-hitting Shahid Afridi too has retired and those are very big shoes to fill.
Added to this, Pakistan have injury concerns as well. Leg spinner Yasir Shah has been ruled out after he sustained an injury during Pakistan’s warm-up match against Bangladesh Board Presidents XI. He’s been replaced with slow left-arm bowler Zulfiqur Babar. Sohail Khan too sustained a back injury while training and he will miss the ODI series. Junaid Khan, who had to pull out of the World Cup due to an injury, has been named as his replacement.
Bangladesh will be without their regular skipper Mashrafe Mortaza in this game as he has been given a match ban following his team’s slow over-rate against India in the ICC Cricket World Cup quarter-final. All-rounder Shakib-al-Hasan will lead the team in Mortaza’s absence.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has paved way for the return of Saeed Ajmal, who was banned for an illegal bowling by International Cricket Council (ICC) during Pakistan’s tour of Sri Lanka last year. PCB, however seem to be happy with his improved action and want to give the off-spinner another crack in international cricket. The 37-year old will look to make full use of this opportunity if he wants to prolong his stay on the international scene.
Imrul Kayes and Taijul Islam have also been dropped from the squad and uncapped batsman Rony Talukdar and Abul Hasan have been named as their replacements. Kayes had a horrendous World Cup, where he scored just nine runs in three innings. Hasan has just played five ODIs for Bangladesh, where he has just scored four runs at average of two.
Talukdar, on the other hand has had a fantastic domestic season, where he was the leading run-getter in the Dhaka Premier Division Cricket League. He scored 714 runs in 16 innings at an average of 51.
Bangladesh-Pakistan encounters have been exciting in the recent past and both teams will look to make a good start and build on from where they had left off at ICC Cricket Wold Cup 2015. The test for Pakistan will however be whether they can fill the gaps left by Misbah and Afridi. After losing the warm-up match against Bangladesh Board Presidents XI, one certainly can’t help but have doubts.
Squads:
Bangladesh: Mashrafe Mortaza (c), Shakib Al Hasan, Tamim Iqbal, Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Mahmudullah, Rony Talukdar, Soumya Sarkar, Mominul Haque, Nasir Hossain, Sabbir Rahman, Taskin Ahmed, Abul Hasan, Rubel Hossain, Arafat Sunny
Pakistan: Azhar Ali (c), Sami Aslam, Sarfraz Ahmed (wk), Mohammad Hafeez, Asad Shafiq, Fawad Alam, Mohammad Rizwan, Haris Sohail, Sohaib Maqsood, Saeed Ajmal, Zulfiqur Babar, Wahab Riaz, Rahat Ali, Ehsan Adil, Junaid Khan.
Bangladesh vs Pakistan 2015, 1st ODI at Dhaka, Preview: Teams look for redemption post ICC Cricket World Cup 2015
