Preview by Mohammad Anab
Two countries, Bangladesh and Pakistan, with a lot of history between them, will meet for a two-match Test series, starting on Friday. The first Test will be played at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium, Mirpur, before both sides move to Sylhet for the second fixture.
Both nations will meet in the longer format after a gap of around two years, and this time, Pakistan will aim to avenge their embarrassing defeat against Bangladesh in 2024 when the latter clinched a historic whitewash series win on Pakistani soil.
During a recent press conference, chief selector and former Bangladesh skipper Habibul Bashar indicated that Bangladesh will be moving to an attacking approach in the red-ball format and therefore, has made numerous changes in the squad for the first Test, like adding top-order batter Tanzid Hasan Tamim.
Bangladesh have announced the squad only for the first Test of the upcoming series so far and in that they have included two uncapped players, namely Tanzid and keeper-batter Amite Hasan, who averages 49 in first-class cricket. Shoriful Islam, Nayeem Hasan and Taskin Ahmed have also been brought back into the squad. Taskin and Shoriful are making a comeback to the Test fold after a gap of almost 18 months. Khaled Ahmed, Jaker Ali, Hasan Mahmud and Hasan Murad have been dropped from the squad.
In the coaching department, there has been one change. Ashiqur Rahman has been named as the interim fielding coach after the regular fielding coach, James Pamment, has been ruled out due to back pain.
The Pakistan side will be led by Shan Masood. Like hosts, the visitors have also added uncapped players in its squad. The four uncapped players are batters Abdullah Fazal & Azan Awais, pace-bowling all-rounder Amad Butt and keeper-batter Muhammad Ghazi Ghori. All of them have been selected on the back of their strong performances in the President's Trophy. Notably, Awais has performed exceptionally well over the past two seasons of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy (Pakistan's premier domestic first-class competition).
There have been some changes in the coaching set-up, too. Former skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed, who guided Pakistan's U19 side to the Asia Cup title as mentor-manager, has been appointed as the new red-ball head coach. Along with him, Asad Shafiq and Umar Gul have been named as batting and bowling coaches, respectively.
The last time Bangladesh played in the format was in November 2025 during a two-match home Test series against Ireland, which the hosts won 2-0. Apart from the whitewash, another significant milestone was also achieved during the series as former skipper Mushfiqur Rahim became the first-ever Bangladeshi cricketer to play 100 Test matches. Ireland were no match for Bangladesh on those turning tracks of Sylhet and Mirpur as the visitors lost both games by a hefty margin.
Pakistan last played in the format in October 2025 in a two-match home series against South Africa. Pakistan had a good chance to win the series against a strong Proteas side but missed the chance after losing the second Test. In the first Test at Lahore, Pakistan defeated Proteas by 93 runs on a rank turner. However, in the second Test at Rawalpindi, the hosts were caught in their own spin web. The duo of Simon Harmer and Keshav Maharaj ran through the Pakistani batting line-up and gave their side a win by eight wickets.
Historically, there have been a few famous Test matches played between the two nations. The first test match between the two teams took place in August 2001. It was only a year ago when Bangladesh played their inaugural Test and the side was no match against a strong Pakistan, who had been granted Test status decades ago. As expected, in that Multan Test, Bangladesh lost by a big margin of an innings and 264 runs as the inexperienced side failed to handle the leg-spin bowling of Pakistan's Danish Kaneria, who took a six-wicket haul in both innings.
However, two years later, both sides met again in Multan, and this time Bangladesh gave the strong Pakistani side a scare. Setting a target of 261 runs for Pakistan in the fourth innings, Bangladesh reduced them to 205/8 and were on the verge of registering their first-ever win in Test cricket. However, Pakistani skipper Inzamam-ul-Haq had other plans as he stitched crucial partnerships with the tailenders and went on to score an unbeaten ton before leading his side to a win by just a solitary wicket.
The first time Bangladesh managed to draw a Test match against Pakistan was in Khulna in April 2015. But their first victory came in the famous two-match series in Rawalpindi in August 2024, where Bangladesh went on to win the second Test as well and clinch a 2-0 series victory. Bangladesh won the first Test by 10 wickets while the second one was won by six wickets. Spinner Mehidy Hasan Miraz was named the 'Player of the Series' for picking up tons of wickets.
In the ongoing cycle of the World Test Championship, Pakistan are in fifth position, with one win from two games, while Bangladesh are just above West Indies at the second last position with no wins from two matches. The current series is part of the World Test Championship and both sides will aim to bag as many points as possible.
Ahead of the series, there are some doubts over Bangladesh skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto's availability. The star cricketer sustained a hamstring injury against New Zealand in the third ODI last month. However, authorities are confident that Shanto will be fully fit ahead of the first Test.
Who will win the first Test match? Join us at 8:30 AM IST (9 AM Local Time) on Friday for the live coverage.