Bangladesh’s head coach Phil Simmons knows what his team is missing as they gear up to face Pakistan for the first time in a bilateral series since 2021. Their pace attack, which mostly pulls more than its weight for the team, will have to run the hard yards without two of their big guys in the three-match T20I series.
Taskin Ahmed, owing to an ankle injury, has been out of competitive cricket for two months now, and his fellow pacer Mustafizur Rahman, who was called in as a replacement for Mitchell Starc in the IPL by Delhi Capitals, has also been sidelined with a thumb injury. In addition to the seasoned pair, Nahid Rana has opted out of the tour due to personal reasons.
“You miss your senior seamers,” Simmons said, standing just outside the boundary ropes with Bangladesh players wrapping up their training session in the background. “As we saw, how Fizz (Mustafizur) was bowling in the IPL then. We will miss him. It is also a chance for somebody to take his place in this series. Let’s hope one of the bowlers decide that he wants to fill in for Fizz in this series. Our bowling is usually our stronger suit in this format. But having two senior bowlers, Taskin and Fizz, out, then it balances off.”
Missing their key pacers is a hole Bangladesh know they can’t really patch, but it’s also the sort of opening that can uncap careers. Bangladesh have called Khaled Ahmed to replace Mustafizur, while they opted not to replace Rana with anyone. Khaled was the joint-second-highest wicket-taker in the recent Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), and is likely to get his maiden T20I cap during this tour.
Besides him, their pace responsibility will be shouldered by young players including Hasan Mahmud and Tanzim Hasan under the lead of Shoriful Islam.
Their injury-hit bowling camp only adds to their recent woes in the format. Coming off a fresh 2-1 defeat against UAE just a week ago, Bangladesh have little time to get back into the groove with the T20 World Cup looming large. In their previous eight T20I series, they have only won two, one of which was at their home against Zimbabwe. Simmons, however, insists there’s been no sulking despite morale-crushing defeats.
“It was difficult to lose the series in UAE, but then sometimes that lifts you up. Our morale has been great, so we are hopeful (the result in UAE) will lift us up,” he said. “I think there’s always a great chance of winning the series. People keep saying Pakistan are not playing well. Again, it is about what happens on the day. We have a good chance of winning the series here. We are working hard very hard to try to improve in all aspects. Hopefully we get better in this series.”
Simmons and Bangladesh, though, get help with the coming of Shaun Tait to fast-track their bowling development. Tait, who worked with Karachi Kings in the recently concluded Pakistan Super League, joined the Bangladesh camp in Lahore, and the series against Pakistan will be his first assignment with the visiting side. In addition to him, Mushtaq Ahmed, who joined Bangladesh as their spin bowling coach in 2024 before the T20 World Cup that year, was also coaching Peshawar Zalmi.
“I think he [Tait] will be brilliant not just for the bowlers, but for the team in general. We will assess the situation here. Mushy [Mushtaq Ahmed] was in the PSL right through so we will get information from him and make our decisions.”
The three-match T20I series begins on May 28 at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore, where the rest of the two games will also be played. The schedule had five T20I games, which were reduced after PSL was postponed for a week.
