This is going to be fifth bilateral series between the teams, and the first test of the two test series is going to be played on Rawalpindi cricket stadium, Rawalpindi. Pakistan has the upper hand, as won all 4 series. The visitors have the second visit only for the test series, and the maiden meeting was 17 years back, in 2003, where the visitors faced the whitewash in the 3 match series. The teams met each other 10 times, and Pakistan won 9 matches, whereas the remaining concluded without any result, Bangladesh still waits for the first-ever win against Pakistan.
Victory brings points:
Currently, as Pakistan is on the seventh position and Bangladesh is on the ninth position, so the home side will have to be the winner of the series, at least, for not losing points, even in case of series will result in draw, the home team will lose the points, and in case of losing the series, the host will lose the position as well. Winning by two-nil will help the home team to increase the points. On the other hand, Bangladesh will lose the points, only in case of losing the series, even the series will be concluded as draw or becoming winner, the team will gain points, but will stay on the same position, in any case.
Venue Weather:
Weather forecast of the Rawalpindi shows the weather would be pretty clear for first four days, the last day would be partly cloudy, but no rain would be expected, as the precipitation percentage would be very low. The temperature would be normal.
Toss and Pitch:
Teams preferred to field first after winning the toss, which happened 6 times out of 9, and the selection favored the teams and the teams won 4 times after selecting the first fielding and lost just once. On the other hand, the teams, who chose to batting first, after winning the toss, never won the match, and lost once out of 3 times and twice the matches concluded without any result. Overall, 4 times the teams, won the toss, won the matches and lost twice number of times. Particularly, for Pakistan, the team won the toss 5 times out of 9 times, and the teams won twice and lost just once. The first batting team won the matches only once, whereas, the teams, who batted second, won the matches 5 times. Out of 5 times, the teams won the match by an inning 4 times.
The lowest defended total was 239, though, it happened in 1993, and the highest successful chase was 220 runs on the venue. The first inning lowest total was 182, and, and the highest total was 521/9 runs, for the second inning, the lowest total was 254 (completed inning), whereas highest was 600 run, for the third inning, the lowest was 139 and the highest was 537 and for the forth inning, the lowest was 187, and highest was 220. Out of nine times, teams could come to play the forth innings only thrice.
History Between the Teams:
Bangladesh never played any test on the venue, the upcoming encounter will be the first one for the teams.
Test History at Venue:
The home side has a considerably poor record, as the team won thrice out of 9 matches and lost a similar number of matches.
Tentative XI for both the Teams:
Pakistan:
The pitch usually favours batsmen as well as fast bowlers, so, the home side would prefer to have four fast bowler or three pacers and one spinner combination. The team would give a test cap to F. Alam.
Pakistan Eleven: S. Masood, A. Ali, A. Ali, B. Azam, H. Sohail, F. Alam, M. Rizwan, S. Afridi, N. Shah, M. Abbas, I. Khan / Y. Shah
Bangladesh:
The visitors would also prefer to go with four pacers, as the team has a couple of part time spinners.
Bangladesh Eleven: T. Iqbal, S. Sarkar, S. Hassan, M. Haque, M. Mithun, Mahmudullah, L. Das, E. Hossain, A. amin Hossain, R. Hossain, A. Jayed
