DARWIN
\nBangladesh captain Najmul Hossain Shanto Wednesday declared wicketkeeper Litton Das \u201c100 percent fit\u201d for the first Test against Australia while suggesting the tourists could play two spinners.
\nExperienced wicketkeeper-batsman Das had been sidelined since June with a left calf injury and was initially ruled out of the opening Test of the two-match series.
\nBut he was a late addition to the squad and is set to line up in Darwin on Thursday in a big boost to a side that lost their only warm-up game by an innings and 38 runs.
\n\u201cLitton gives us batting depth,\u201d Shanto told reporters. \u201cHe is consistent. We are hopeful of our batting unit doing well in the Test match.\u201d
\nThe series marks Bangladesh\u2019s first Test tour of Australia in 23 years, with their last visit in 2003.
\nThey have their work cut out against a full-strength side ranked one in the world and buoyed by the return from injury of bowling heavyweights Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon.
\nWhile Shanto confirmed the inclusion of Das, he did not confirm the remainder of the starting side, wanting a last look at the wicket before deciding.
\nBut he suggested Bangladesh could field both their frontline spinners \u2014 Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Taijul Islam.
\n\u201cThe surface looks good, I think we (might stick with our) normal combination, like two spinners and three seamers,\u201d Shanto said.
\n\u201cBut looking at the conditions, tomorrow we\u2019ll have a chance to see it again, and then we\u2019ll decide according to the conditions.\u201d
\nBangladesh are without injured fast bowlers Nahid Rana and Shoriful Islam with Taskin Ahmed set to lead the attack.
\nHe will be supported by at least two of Ebadot Hossain, Hasan Mahmud, Syed Khaled Ahmed and Musfik Hasan.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re going to really miss them, especially Rana. He\u2019s a big threat nowadays in world cricket,\u201d admitted Taskin.
\n\u201cBut still, myself and some of the other bowlers have little bit of experience. So let\u2019s see how we do.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s a great opportunity for the bowlers playing in Australia. If Rana and Shoriful were here, it might be different, but still, we are hoping to do well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DARWIN Bangladesh captain Najmul Hossain Shanto Wednesday declared wicketkeeper Litton Das \u201c100 percent fit\u201d for the first Test against Australia while suggesting the tourists could play two spinners. Experienced wicketkeeper-batsman Das had been sidelined since June with a left calf injury and was initially ruled out of the opening Test of the two-match series. But …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":101594,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101585"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101585\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101609,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101585\/revisions\/101609"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}