DHAKA, – Bangladesh will take on Pakistan in the first Test of the two-match series schedule to begin tomorrow (Friday) at Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, Pakistan. The match kicks off at 11 am (BST).

Earlier on Wednesday, Bangladesh Test team reached in Islamabad via Doha, Qatar for the first Test against hosts Pakistan. They were brought to Rawalpindi from the Pakistani capital later by a bus amid tight security.

Bangladesh team didn’t keep any activity on the day of their arrival in Rawalpindi. But, they are scheduled to hold their first training session at
the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium today (Thursday) with a day preparation they will get down for the first Test against the home side.

The Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium has hosted nine Tests, with the last — when Sri Lanka drew against the home side — played after a gap of nearly 15 years.

This is the second phase of Bangladesh’s three-leg tour of Pakistan. Bangladesh completed the first phase of the tour last month in Lahore where they lost the T20 series 2-0 after the third match was washed out. Bangladesh coach Russell Domingo, however, expressed unhappy for getting only a day training session.

Prior leaving the country, he, in a press conference, said, “The boys are going there with less preparation as they did not get enough time to prepare themselves for the Test.”

However, coach Russell Domingo dream to win the Test in foreign soil by saying, “We’ll have to win Test in foreign soil … If we are practical, it
will not be bad to get victory in World Test Championship … We are tenth in Test ranking and our team want to win Test in foreign soil and if it happen, then the team will become self confident.”

Bangladesh so far played two Tests in World Test Championship with the Tigers lost both the matches to India held in November in India. So, they
have no points in their account. Both Bangladesh and Pakistan played 10 Tests with Bangladesh lost nine matches while the remaining one Test ended in a draw.

Pakistan have already started their preparations and trained at Rawalpindi from Tuesday. The second Test of the two-Test series will take place at the National Stadium in Karachi from April 5 after the Pakistan Super League (PSL) along with one-off ODI. The Test in Rawalpindi will be the Tigers’ first in Pakistan since 2003.

Bangladesh lost 3-0 to Pakistan in its last Test series in 2003, which included the home teams’ nail-biting one-wicket victory at Multan. Meanwhile, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) posted pictures upon safe arrival of the Bangladesh players in Islamabad. “Arrival of @BCBtigers team at Islamabad. Warm welcome to the visitors to the federal capital,” the PCB tweet read.

Squads:

Bangladesh (likely): Tamim Iqbal, Saif Hassan, Najmul Hossain Shanto,
Mominul Haque (captain), Mohammad Mithun, Mahmudullah, Liton Das (wicket keeper), Taijul Islam, Rubel Hossain, Abu Jayed and Ebadot Hossain

Pakistan (likely): Shan Masood, Abid Ali, Azhar Ali (captain), Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan (wicket keeper), Haris Sohail, Asad Shafiq, Yasir Shah, Mohammad Abbas, Naseem Shah and Shaheen Afridi