Favourable conditions go begging on opening day
The gloomy weather throughout the first day of the second Test was expected to provide assistance to Bangladeshi seamers Ebadot Hossain and Khaled Ahmed, but once again left-arm spinner Taijul Islam was the only successful bowler, picking up both Pakistan wickets that fell in Mirpur yesterday.
A lot was expected of champion all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan on his return to the side, but he failed to meet those demands with the ball on the first day.
The left-armer, making a comeback after recovering from a hamstring injury sustained during the T20 World Cup, bowled with a rather short run-up and it appeared he was yet to get into the groove.
On the other hand, Taijul picked up where he left off in the first Test in Chattogram, where he had bagged seven wickets, and posed continual threats to in-form Pakistani openers Abid Ali and Abdullah Shafique after being introduced in the tenth over of the innings.
Pakistan eventually went for lunch on 78 for two, with Taijul dismissing both Abid and Shafique. But the hosts certainly missed an opportunity to apply even more pressure on the Pakistani batting following a brief rain break in the second session.
Pakistan skipper Babar Azam and Azhar Ali added an unbeaten 91-run third-wicket stand as the visitors bounced back to score 83 without losing a wicket in the second session before the days' play was called off due to bad light.
Ebadot bowled nine overs and conceded 28 runs but tried to test the batters with his initial swing movement while mixing in a few bouncers.
However, Khaled, who replaced Abu Jayed, lacked any sort of bite. The tall right-arm seamer bowled just four overs and was guilty of bowling on the shorter side despite the favourable overcast conditions, allowing the two Pakistani openers to score freely.
"It's important to pick up early wickets in Test cricket and when you are not able to pick wickets, it's crucial to contain runs. That was not happening initially. Ebadot bowled some good deliveries but I won't say we did too bad in the first session," off-spinner Mehedi Hasan Miraz told the media yesterday. "If we could have picked up two more wickets in the second session, it would have been easier for us. We could have picked up a couple more wickets if we utilised the weather and conditions."
According to the 24-year-old, it will be important for Bangladesh to bundle Pakistan out early when they resume the second day in order to take control of the game in the coming days.
Despite play for the next four days scheduled to start from 9:30am, there is no good news according to the weather forecast which suggests a high possibility of rain over the next few days in the capital.