Pakistan won the toss and opted to bat first in the Dhaka Test against Bangladesh at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium on Saturday morning.
The hosts will bank on their star all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan, who has staged a comeback along with right-arm pacer Khaled Ahmed. It will be marked as Shakib’s first Test in Mirpur in three years. He last played in Mirpur in November 2018.
Mahmudul Hasan Joy, the right-handed batter, is making his Test debut in Saturday’s match at the age of 21 years, with Bangladesh making three changes to the playing XI from their first Test.
Mahmudul has played a total of eight First-class matches and scored 574 runs at an average of 41.00, with two centuries and two fifties in his kitty.
He was one of Bangladesh’s mainstays during the U-19 World Cup triumph last year in South Africa.
Bangladesh have replaced Saif Hassan, Yasir Ali and Abu Jayed Rahi with Mahmudul, Shakib and Khaled.
Saif, the right-handed opener, was diagnosed with typhoid, according to the Bangladesh Cricket Board. So one change was inevitable for the Tigers.
Shakib was so close to playing the first Test, but the hamstring injury delayed his return to Tests. The southpaw played his last Test in July 2021 in Zimbabwe while Khaled returned to Tests after about three years. He played his last Test in 2019 in Hamilton.
Pakistan did not make any change to their playing XI from Chattogram Test that they won by eight wickets. That was the first match for both teams in the new cycle of the ICC World Test Championship.
Bangladesh (Playing XI): Shadman Islam, Mahmudul Hasan Joy, Najmul Hossain Shanto, Mominul Haque (c), Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, Liton Das (w), Mehidy Hasan, Taijul Islam, Khaled Ahmed, Ebadot Hossain
Pakistan (Playing XI): Abid Ali, Abdullah Shafique, Azhar Ali, Babar Azam (c), Fawad Alam, Mohammad Rizwan (w), Faheem Ashraf, Hasan Ali, Sajid Khan, Nauman Ali, Shaheen Afridi
Source: United News of Bangladesh