Preview: Bangladesh vs Pakistan 1st ODI at Dhaka, 17 April, 2015
After an off the field battle between the PCB and BCB was resolved and put aside, the real war is set to begin at Mirpur on 17th April 2015, Pakistan will be playing their first bilateral series against the hosts since December 2011,
A Battle which began with the choice of an ICC president ,Bangladesh cancelling two tours to Pakistan in one year, and the PCB barring its players from domestic competitions in Bangladesh , and most recently PCB demanding a revenue shared from this tour but the matters are now resolved with BCB deciding to compensate there counterpart.
Pakistan for the first time in nearly 6 years will be without the service of the ever dependable Misbah-ul-haq and boom boom Shahid Afridi with both retiring from odi’s after the World Cup 2015.
Pakistan will begin a new era under the new leadership of Azhar Ali, who some critics believe to be in the same mould as his predecessor, question’s had already been raised about his ability, and place in the team as he was ignored for the world cup squad and hasn’t played an odi match since January 2013, also Pakistan will be happy with the return of the Ace Spinner Saeed Ajmal having cleared his action, and a host of new players with the likes of Sami Aslam, Mohammad Rizwan and Saad Nasim been included in the squad.
Pakistan however have a pace attack that can demolish any top rank side in the world, Junaid Khan makes his return after injury that ruled him out of the world cup along with an inspired Wahab Riaz, and Ehsan Adil and Rahat Ali make up the pace battery of the Pakistan team.
The lack of experience will challenge the men in green with only Hafeez and Ajmal have played more than 100 matches .
On the other hand, Bangladesh will be at their best, since there dismal 18 months or so, after an inspired performance by them in the world cup ,making it into the quarter-final and beating England on the way.
Musharafe Murtaza will be leading the squad with the experience of Shakib-ul-Hasan in the format , who will be standing in as captain in the first odi, Sabbir Rahman will be full of confidence after guiding BCB XI to a victory over the Pakistani’s in the tour match with a blazing 123 off 99 balls,
Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah are the experienced in-form batsmen, and the newcomer Rony Talukdar has also done well in domestic cricket, to earn his first international call-up.
Facts:
Bangladesh have only beaten Pakistan once in there entire history and that too was 16 years ago in 1999 world cup, but this will be there best chance to snatch a victory against a relatively inexperienced Pakistan Team.
Quotes
"There are little things, one percenters that we need to improve. We all spoke about it. Hopefully we will do what we have been doing. It is going to be very competitive."
Bangladesh coach Chandika Hathurusingha
"You need experience in your side and it takes time to recover [from the absence of experienced cricketers]. It will take time but it is a good time for the newcomers to get into the side and get ready for the international arena."
Pakistan batsman Mohammad Hafeez