Islamabad
\nThe Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Thursday announced a 12-man squad for the Green Team\u2019s second Test match against Bangladesh at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium.
\nPakistan cricket\u2019s nightmarish slide continued on Sunday, when Bangladesh recorded their first-ever Test triumph over the hosts, taking the opening fixture of the two-match series with a clinical 10-wicket win.
\nA brilliant 191 by veteran batter Mushfiqur Rahim on a flat Rawalpindi pitch helped the visitors rack up their highest-ever total against Pakistan of 565 to take a crucial 117-run first-innings lead.
\nThe defeat marked Pakistan\u2019s second upset loss this year after the T20 international shock against the USA, raising questions over their standing as a red-ball side \u2014 which has now lost four of their six fixtures of the ongoing World Test Championship (WTC) cycle \u2014 as well.
\nPakistan went into the match \u2014 at the back of a head-to-head record of 12 wins out of 13 matches \u2014 pumped with the ambition of making next year\u2019s WTC final, intending to dismantle Bangladesh with an all-pace bowling attack, only to find themselves clueless against the visitors\u2019 spinners on the fifth day.
\nThe side recalled leg-spinner Abrar Ahmed on Wednesday for the second Test against Bangladesh after their decision to play an all-pace attack on a slow track backfired in the series opener
\nSpinners Mehidy Hasan Miraz (4-21) and Shakib Al Hasan (3-44) rocked the hosts and made them rue not playing a frontline spinner.
\nAbrar, who has 38 wickets from six tests, was subsequently added to the squad.
\nIn a post on X today, PCB announced its 12-man squad for the second Test.
\nShaheen Shah Afridi, who was released from the squad after the conclusion of the first Test, was rested whereas pacer Mir Hamza and Abrar returned to the side for the second match.
\nPakistan\u2019s head coach Jason Gillespie said Afridi would be rested to allow him to spend time with his newborn son and family.
\n\u201cObviously Shaheen will miss out on this game. We had a good conversation with him and he fully understands and appreciates the thinking behind it. We are just looking at what our best combination is for this game,\u201d Gillespie said.
\nGillespie admitted it will be a challenge to square the series.
\n\u201cWe want to go out there and play positive,\u201d said Gillespie, who is in his first series with Pakistan.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s about scoring lots of singles and with our bowling, we want to be ruthless and challenge the opposition batters.\u201d
\nBut he backed under-pressure skipper Shan Masood who failed with the bat with six and 14 in the first match and has lost all four of his Tests as captain.
\n\u201cShan is a very positive captain,\u201d said Gillespie.
\n\u201cHe wants to play and win games [\u2026] we showed that with our intent in the first game but it didn\u2019t quite work out and that\u2019s credit to our opposition.
\n\u201cThat game is gone, but what we can do is focus on the game starting tomorrow.\u201d
\n\u2018Morale very good\u2019
\nBangladesh head coach Chandika Hathurusinghe was confident his side could recreate their heroics from the first Test.
\n\u201cThe morale of the players is very, very good,\u201d said former Sri Lankan batsman Hathurusinghe.
\n\u201cObviously beating Pakistan in Pakistan is not an easy task,\u201d adding that the second game would be a big challenge.
\n\u201cThey are a very strong team and we expect a very good fight in the second Test as well but we will not be different from the first game and know our strength as well as that of Pakistan\u2019s.\u201d
\nSince gaining Test status in 2000, Bangladesh have only won two of their 32 overseas series with wins in the West Indies (2009) and Zimbabwe (2021), drawing three and losing 27.
\nBangladesh\u2019s pace attack will be boosted by the return of experienced Taskin Ahmed who recovered from a shoulder injury but will have a tie with Nahid Rana for a place in the eleven.
\nIntermittent rain and bad weather in Rawalpindi prevented both teams from having a practice session.
\nPakistan squad: Shan Masood (captain), Saud Shakeel (vice-captain), Abrar Ahmed, Abdullah Shafique, Babar Azam, Khurram Shahzad, Mir Hamza, Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Rizwan (wicket-keeper), Naseem Shah, Saim Ayub and Salman Ali Agha.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Islamabad The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Thursday announced a 12-man squad for the Green Team\u2019s second Test match against Bangladesh at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium. Pakistan cricket\u2019s nightmarish slide continued on Sunday, when Bangladesh recorded their first-ever Test triumph over the hosts, taking the opening fixture of the two-match series with a clinical 10-wicket …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":69572,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69565","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\/69565","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=69565"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69565\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69592,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69565\/revisions\/69592"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}