Tamim returns as Tigers field in only Test against Ireland
Ireland won the toss and elected to bat in the lone Test against hosts Bangladesh at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur today.
Opener Tamim Iqbal, who sat out the last two-match Test series against India in December last year, returns to the side and, despite doubts regarding his participation in the match due to a family emergency, starts for the Tigers. Even though lead pacer Taskin Ahmed was ruled out of the squad yesterday due to a side strain, Bangladesh opted to go with an attacking XI comprised of three pacers -- Ebadot Hossain, Khaled Ahmed, and Shoriful Islam.
Ireland, on the other hand, have as many as nine uncapped players in their squad, three of whom have never even played any first-class cricket. And the visitors have decided to hand debuts to six players -- Murray Commins, Harry Tector, Curtis Campher, Lorcan Tucker, Graham Hume, and Ben White.
After already sealing the ODI series and the T20I series, the hosts will hope to wrap it up with a win in the longest format as well. Under Tamim Iqbal's leadership, the Tigers won the three-match ODI series 2-0 with one match washed out in Sylhet while a rejuvenated T20 side under Shakib Al Hasan won the three-match T20I series 2-1 in Chattogram.
The only win for the visitors was when they beat Bangladesh by seven wickets in the final T20I in Chattogram last Friday.
Meanwhile, the visitors have their own issues to deal with. This is going to be Ireland's first Test in almost four years. The last time the Irish side played a Test was back in July, 2019 against England at Lord's.
Playing XIs:
Bangladesh: 1 Tamim Iqbal, 2 Najmul Hossain Shanto, 3 Mominul Haque, 4 Shakib Al Hasan (capt), 5 Mushfiqur Rahim, 6 Litton Das (wk), 7 Mehidy Hasan Miraz, 8 Taijul Islam, 9 Khaled Ahmed, 10 Shoriful Islam, 11 Ebadot Hossain
Ireland: 1 Murray Commins, 2 James McCollum, 3 Andy Balbirnie, 4 Harry Tector, 5 PJ Moor, 6 Curtis Campher, 7 Lorcan Tucker (wk), 8 Mark Adair, 9 Andy McBrine, 10 Graham Hume, 11 Ben White