There is not much separating the two sides when it comes to ODI ranking – Pakistan are 6th while Bangladesh are 7th currently. It is Pakistan though who are under pressure coming into this encounter. Sarfaraz Ahmed’s team were hammered 4-0 by England in the recent ODI series while Afghanistan stunned them by three wickets in the warm-up game on Friday. If it was their bowling which faltered against the Englishman, it was their batsmen who struggled against the effective Afghanistan spinners on the slowish Cardiff track.
Barring Babar Azam, most of the Pakistan batsmen struggled while their bowlers struggled to create any major impact on the Afghan batsmen. Experienced Wahab Riaz, returning to the Pakistan side, was the only one to create any impact with the ball. Bangladesh top-order featuring Soumya Sarkar, Tamim Iqbal and Mushfiqur Rahim are all in top form with the experience of Shakib al Hasan, world’s No. 1 all-rounder in the middle-order. Bangladesh will look to test out their pace bowling resources led by skipper Mashrafe Mortaza, the versatile Mustafizur Rahman and young Abu Jayed gave good account of themselves. Pakistan lost the ODI series against England 4-0 with the first ODI getting washed out. They also lost the first warm-up game against Afghanistan but that was not an official List A match. Bangladesh are coming off a dominant display to win the tri-series in Ireland with wins over both hosts and West Indies
Pakistan need to get their batsmen to hit top gear as soon as possible. The bowling has failed to click recently which has forced them to go to back to the likes of Mohammad Amir and Wahab Riaz. Batsmen like Fakhar Zaman, Imam ul haq and Shoaib Malik need to back up Azam’s efforts consistently to post big enough totals for their bowlers to defend. Bangladesh have usually relied on their spinners to do the trick for them in sub-continent conditions but this time around they need their pace bowlers to fire consistently. Paceman Rubel Hossain commented recently that will be a challenge for Bangladesh fast bowlers to pick wickets and restrict batsmen. The warm-up game will provide them opportunity to get their bowling plans sorted.
Squads:
Pakistan: Sarfraz Ahmed (c), Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Babar Azam, Shoaib Malik, Mohammad Hafeez, Asif Ali, Shadab Khan, Imad Wasim, Haris Sohail, Hasan Ali, Shaheen Afridi, Mohammad Amir, Wahab Riaz, Mohammad Hasnain.
Bangladesh: Mashrafe Mortaza (C), Shakib Al Hasan, Liton Das, Mehedi Hasan, Mosaddek Hossain, Rubel Hossain, Tamim Iqbal, Abu Jayed, Mahmudullah, Mohammad Mithun, Mushfiqur Rahim (Wk), Mustafizur Rahman, Sabbir Rahman, Mohammad Saifuddin and Soumya Sarkar.
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