Pakistan in Dhaka for bilateral series

Pakistan cricket team reached Dhaka Saturday morning for the three-match T20I series and two-match Test series against hosts Bangladesh.

Pakistan cricket team were supposed to come this Tuesday, but since they lost to Australia in the semi-final a couple of days ago, they have arrived a few days earlier. Skipper Babar Azam and Shoaib Malik will arrive this Tuesday. The first match of the T20I series will be played on November 19 at Mirpur's SBNS while the second and third math will be held on November 20 and November 22 respectively. The first Test will start from November 26 at Chittagong while the second Test will start from December 4 at Dhaka. Pakistan announced a strong squad for the Bangladesh tour as only Mohammad Hafeez from their T20 World Cup squad is not coming for the T20I series.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh Cricket Board is going to announce the squad for the three-match T20I series soon as it was learnt that quite a few changes are being pondered in the squad compared to the one that played in the T20 World Cup.Bangladesh lost against Scotland in the qualifiers before winning against Oman and Papua New Guinea to qualify for the Super 12 stage.But in the Super 12 they lost all five of their games, and put in frustrating performances with the bat in the last two games where they were all out for just 84 and 73 against South Africa and Australia respectively.

Tigers’ chance to learn from Pak’s T20 quest

From lying on the ICU bed for two days after suffering a severe chest infection to smashing a blistering fifty against Australia in the semifinal of the ICC T20 World Cup, Pakistan wicketkeeper-batter Mohammad Rizwan's heroics have been praised all around the globe although his side ended up losing the game.Rizwan's dedication and determination towards the game was only revealed after Pakistan's team doctor NajeebullahSoomro talked about it in the post-match press conference after Australia beat Pakistan by five wickets in Dubai on Thursday.Rizwan's bravery could be a great lesson for the Bangladeshi players, especially skipper MahmudullahRiyad, who got carried away after qualifying for the Super 12 stage and went on to point out the hard work and sacrifice players make for the country.Being a Test playing nation, it was expected that Bangladesh would reach the Super 12 stage with some authority by winning against the associate nations in the qualifying stage. However, Bangladesh lost their tournament opener against Scotland and that, expectedly, drew a barrage of criticism.

Bangladesh's job was only half done after qualifying for the Super 12 stage and the way Mahmudullah went on to express his anger and emotions after the game against Papua New Guinea was probably uncalled for.The Tigers needed to hold on to their emotions, just like Pakistan did after New Zealand and England cancelled their scheduled tour to the country prior to the World Cup citing security reasons.Instead, the players opted to engage in the war of words with players like Mushfiqur Rahim asking the naysayers 'take a look in the mirror', swaying the attention from on the field to off it.