Pakistan vs Bangladesh, 2nd Test Match Preview, Prediction and Live Streaming

At a dead end. With challenges pushing them more into the wall. The Pakistan team is cornered right now from everywhere. And thats exactly where they tend to turn the situation around. They like having few options left. They thrive under such conditions. But cricket, at large, is not a game of luck. Especially Test cricket. Unlike the younger formats, Test cricket is not intimidated by juju and unpredictability. If you need applause from the purest format of the game, you need to make intelligent decisions.

Intelligent decisions are where the men in green have been lacking. Apparently, they don’t like it either. Pakistan’s captain Shan Masood has made it clear on several occasions that they will be adopting a new approach to get the results out of matches. One of the examples of that was when the team decided to declare the innings when they were a little short of 500, a milestone the team has not achieved yet owing to–what many people believe–a mental block.

But they got results nevertheless, albeit not the type they would have fancied but hey, winning the game was never the plan originally, right? If they had not been on a downward spiral, especially in home games, one would have said that this is a hopeful situation for them. They have achieved what they set their mind to. That, alas, is not the case right now. Even winning the next game can not exactly be the silver lining for the Shan Masood-led men. They know they have problems deeper than what a victory can heal. Their pacers have not been clocking at an oomph-ish pace or hitting miserly tight lines and as a result failing to get 10 wickets per innings. Then there are injuries that plague the players randomly and frequently. The biggest of all, perhaps, is the sheer absence of any kind of home advantage (and the fact that this has prolonged its stay beyond what Pakistan can endure).

Pakistan are stuck in the middle in this scenario. On one hand, they are under pressure to be like the couth Big Three and perform regularly in red-ball cricket. But they have the endurance and resources to play three Tests a year and call it a day. On priority, they need to find what path they want to tread on.

The victory will have done wonders for Bangladesh. It’s their second win against a higher-ranked team within a year. Earlier they outdid New Zealand but this victory against Pakistan was bigger and better. While they are at it, they would want to seal the series as well and their bowlers have the ability to make that happen. They have already shown that they are too focused on their path to be influenced by what the other side is doing. Earlier, they did not take the hosts’ word for how the pitch was going to play. Despite the fact that the team was not a unit off the field, they attempted to do everything on the field together as one force. This paid off and paid off in an epochal way. They now only need a draw to deny Pakistan of another home series and boy would they shy away from doing this very thing?

Team Overview:

As expected, there are calls already to take captaincy duties from Shan Masood and even axe him from the team. However, all of that chatter can be delayed until the last match is done and dusted. For now, the Pakistan team has decided to sideline Shaheen Shah Afridi who has been averaging 40 with the ball since last year. Pakistan have also realized that they decreased their options without a spinner, hence, Abrar Ahmed has been called back into the squad for his mystery spin. Besides Abrar, Pakistan will be fielding three pacers including Naseem Shah or Mir Hamza, Khurram Shehzad, and Mohammad Ali. The batters, especially the ones up top, are having a hard time getting started. Rawalpindi’s pitch which turned essentially into a featherbed, even could not bully them into scoring some decent runs. Babar Azam, most of all, has been a huge letdown. Although it has been nearly 14 innings since he last notched up a half-century, his both dismissals against Bangladesh ended in an unlucky yet very avoidable way.

Nahid Rana proved that Bangladesh have some quality warming the benches but the OG Taskin Ahmed is right now too good to be replaced. As he comes back, Bangladesh will have an even stronger lineup to keep Pakistan batters at bay. The batting lineup is not too bad and if Pindi pitch decides to do a Pindi pitch again, it will be all too easy for them to put an incredible show of their skills. Litton Das springing back to form got ‘long may it continue’ chants from Bangladesh fans and his peers and his late-order partnerships with Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Mushfiqur Rahim is a headscratcher for every team, let alone Pakistan.

Head-to-Head matches:

Pakistan has taken on Bangladesh 13 times in the longest format of cricket. The previous Test match was the first time Bangladesh triumphed over the men in green. In total, Pakistan has 12 wins and one match ended in a stalemate.

Pitch and Weather Conditions:

Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium’s pitch has been outrightly denying assisting bowlers in any way. Plant some grass on it? Doesn’t matter, it will flatten out by the third day. Bowl under grey skies? The pitch will still find a way to favor the batters. Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) might as well stop trying to tweak the pitch and let it play out the way it has to. With a belter of a pitch on offer, one can expect the toss-winning captain to bat first. Unless there is some green visible (as claimed).

But here comes the scary part. Rawalpindi is forecasted to receive an overwhelming amount of rain over the next few days. This adds another aspect to Pakistan’s worries as they now have to avoid a troika of demons; Bangladesh, a draw and rain.