Live Update: Afghanistan look to tick boxes in rare Test outing against confident Bangladesh The win in Darwin is still fresh in the memory but Bangladesh have more than one form concern, while Afghanistan will hope to start afresh under new ctain Rahmat Shah The three who matter: Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah all smiles after dismissing Pat Cummins The three who matter: Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah all smiles after dismissing Pat Cummins, India vs Australia, World Cup, Chennai, October 8, 2023 The smile of a champion – Mohammed Siraj picked up five wickets in a ten-ball period, India vs Sri Lanka, Asia Cup final, Colombo, September 17, 2023 Alyssa Healy poses with the trophy after Australia retained the Ashes, England vs Australia, 3rd ODI, Women’s Ashes, Taunton, July 18, 2023 Shane Warne bowls the first Test match ball under lights.
Australia v New Zealand 2nd Test, Day One, at the WACA, Perth, Thursday November 20th 1997 Najmul Hossain Shanto soaks in the moment, Australia vs Bangladesh, 1st Test, Darwin, 4th day, August 16, 2026 Bangladesh will start off as favourites against Afghanistan , the home side, in their first Test since their drawn series in Australia in August. Najmul Hossain Shanto led the side effectively in Australia with stunning performances from Tanzid Hasan, Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Hasan Mahmud to win the Test in Darwin. Mahmud then continued his form in county cricket with Kent, while Mehidy was consistent in his short replacement stint at the CPL, which are good portents for this one-off game in Abu Dhabi.
Bangladesh also have an in-form Towhid Hridoy in their line-up, just over a month after he scored an unbeaten 352 for Bangladesh A against South Africa A in Potchefstroom. It was not just a Bangladesh record, but the highest score by a visiting batter in first-class cricket in South Africa. Bangladesh have some major strugglers too.
Tanzid is short of runs since the Test century in Darwin, while Litton Das has scored exactly two runs in his last five innings across international formats, including three ducks in as many Test innings in Australia. Mominul Haque and Shadman Islam are short of runs too. As for Afghanistan, there is a lot of room for improvement, especially after they were beaten soundly by India in their last Test match.
Rahmat Shah was steady after coming in early, Sri Lanka vs Afghanistan, Only Test, Colombo, 1st day, February 2, 2024 New ctain Rahmat Shah will want to take the team in a new direction in collaboration with Pybus. They have dropped both left-arm spinners Sharafuddin Ashraf and Nangeyalia Kharote, believing Bangladesh could be vulnerable against wristspin, retaining Qais Ahmad and adding Khalil Gurbaz , while left-arm spinner Zia-ur-Rehman comes back after more than a year. Afghanistan’s main concern would be their batting.
Sediqullah Atal and Abdul Malik will open the innings with the aggressive Rahmanullah Gurbaz taking up the No. The main source of strength are ctain Shah and Hashmatullah Shahidi, while Shahidullah Kamal would be expected to bring his domestic form – he was the top run-getter with 538 from eight innings in the just-concluded Ahmad Shah Abdali first-class tournament back home – into the Test arena. Mahmudul Hasan Joy was caught at first slip early in the innings, Bangladesh vs Afghanistan, Only Test, Mirpur, 2nd day, June 15, 2023 Afghanistan LLWDL (last five completed matches, most recent first) Bangladesh LWLWW Afghanistan will bank on the experience of Rahmat Shah , who replaced Shahidi as the Test and ODI ctain after the Test defeat in India.
Shah is a heavy scorer, and the only batter from Afghanistan to have scored 1000 Test runs and hit three centuries. He has provided middle-order stability for the last 13 years, a quality not always present in a side more known for explosive batting and canny spin-bowling. Rahmat’s counterpart Najmul Hossain Shanto is at a different crossroads in his cacity as the Bangladesh ctain.
He has already established himself as the most successful Test ctain in the country’s history, and now has the chance to she the team’s future in a way that no Bangladesh ctain ever got the chance to. Bangladesh have important WTC matches ahead, which means that Shanto cannot afford to take the foot off the gas against Afghanistan. A win in Abu Dhabi will place him in rarefied territory as it will be his tenth as the Test ctain.
Afghanistan have a like-for-like replacement for pace-bowling allrounder Azmatullah Omarzai in Ismat Alam . Legspinners Qais and Khalil Gurbaz are likely to get in with Afghanistan expected to go spin-heavy. Ziaur Rahman, the seamer who played the Test against India in June, looks likelier to get a game than Zia-ur-Rehman, the left-arm spinner.
Afghanistan (probable): 1 Sediqullah Atal, 2 Abdul Malik, 3 Rahmanullah Gurbaz, 4 Rahmat Shah (ct), 5 Hashmatullah Shahidi, 6 Shahidullah, 7 Afsar Zazai (wk), 8 Ismat Alam, 9 Qais Ahmed, 10 Ziaur Rahman/Mohammad Saleem, 11 Khalil Gurbaz. Including Hridoy will be a big call as it would mean shuffling the middle order. Bangladesh are also likely to consider offspinner Nayeem Hasan on this Abu Dhabi pitch.
Bangladesh (probable): 1 Tanzid Hasan, 2 Soumya Sarkar/Shadman Islam, 3 Mominul Haque, 4 Najmul Hossain Shanto (ct), 5 Mushfiqur Rahim, 6 Litton Das (wk), 7 Mehidy Hasan Miraz, 8 Nayeem Hasan, 9 Taijul Islam, 10 Hasan Mahmud, 11 Shoriful Islam. Towhid Hridoy’s 350* is the highest first-class score by a Bangladeshi, South Africa A vs Bangladesh A, Potchefstroom, 2nd Test, Day 4, September 2, 2026 Pitch and conditions Five years ago, Sean Williams described the Abu Dhabi pitch as a ” carpet on one side and a dustbowl on the other “. It has generally been slow, like when Afghanistan beat Bangladesh in the ODIs last year.
The temperature could climb to nearly 40 degrees during the day. This will be Bangladesh’s first Test at a neutral venue, and their first in the UAE. Rahmat Shah has become Afghanistan’s fourth Test ctain after Asghar Afghan, Rashid Khan and Hashmatullah Shahidi.
Afghanistan won their last Test at the Zayed Cricket Stadium, beating Zimbabwe by six wickets in 2021. “I am looking at the wicket and the wicket looks good. It looks like it can be a little bit slow but it looks to be a good wicket.
So we are preparing for a good wicket and we know that we’re going to have to come up against a number of spinners and so we’re preparing for all that.” Bangladesh coach Phil Simmons The win in Darwin is still fresh in the memory but Bangladesh have more than one form concern, while Afghanistan will hope to start afresh under new ctain Rahmat Shah Rahmat Shah raised an important fifty, Sri Lanka vs Afghanistan, Only Test, Colombo, 4th day, February 5, 2024 The win in Darwin is still fresh in the memory but Bangladesh have more than one form concern, while Afghanistan will hope to start afresh under new ctain Rahmat Shah Rahmat Shah raised an important fifty, Sri Lanka vs Afghanistan, Only Test, Colombo, 4th day, February 5, 2024 The win in Darwin is still fresh in the memory but Bangladesh have more than one form concern, while Afghanistan will hope to start afresh under new ctain Rahmat Shah Rahmat Shah raised an important fifty, Sri Lanka vs Afghanistan, Only Test, Colombo, 4th day, February 5, 2024 AFG vs BAN 2026/27, AFG vs BAN Only Test Match Preview – Afghanistan look to tick boxes in rare Test outing against confident Bangladesh AFG vs BAN 2026/27 Afghanistan vs Bangladesh Match Preview: The win in Darwin is still fresh in the memory but Bangladesh have more than one form concern, while Afghanistan will hope to start afresh under new ctain Rahmat Shah The win in Darwin is still fresh in the memory but Bangladesh have more than one form concern, while Afghanistan will hope to start afresh under new ctain Rahmat Shah The Test win in Darwin was the highest point in Najmul Hossain Shanto’s ctaincy career • /Cricket Australia Mohammad Isam is ‘s Bangladesh correspondent.
