Team Pakistan flied to Bangladesh to face some music from Bengali Tigers at their home soil after long negotiations which includes security issues & other monetary benefits. Our men’s will look to strengthen their unblemished record of wins (other than that one loss in WC 1999) against neighbor nation which was once part of our map (East Pakistan).
Although Bangladesh always considered as minnows of cricket but lately they have shown some great improvements in their game, reaching final of Asia Cup 2012 & Quarter finals of WC2015. They also showed some character in test matches when they posted some good scores against some genuinely good bowling attacks. Although they haven’t got that winning touch but they are showing some fighting spirit which is a great development for a side which is considered as minnows.
People in Pakistan still are thinking playing Bangladesh now will be as easy as it was few years back, but people should realize the fact that Bangladesh is different team with transformation of their average players in impact players.
On their own soil with home crowd support they can prove themselves as dangerous as any team can be. Induction of youngster like Mominul Haque who averaged 63 after 12 test matches with 4 test centuries (2 against New Zeland & 1 against Srilanka) will help Bangladesh.
Seasoned players like Shakib Alhassan & Mushfiqur Rahim now can be rated among top players with highly ranked recent performances. Development of Mahmudallah as a batsman world has seen recently with 2 centuries in recently concluded WC2015.
Plan from Bangladesh would be to prepare spin dynamite pitches which will explode & help their spinners Shakib & young Taijul to gain the maximum home advantage. Although Pakistan test team have all the experience & talented players which can handle BENGALI Tigers’s. But fighting with tigers this time will not be like piece of cake for our Soldiers.
By Ehsan Muhammad Khan.