Published: Sep 04, 2017, 09:00 AM (IST)
Edited: Sep 04, 2017, 05:00 PM (IST)
Hello and welcome to CricketCountry’s live coverage of the second Test, Day One between Bangladesh and Australia at Chittagong. I am Paulami Chakraborty and I will be providing with the live updates and some nice tweets from the Twitter world. Bangladesh set up a historic victory against Australia for the first time in the previous match. Although they have won against the level-headed teams like West Indies and Zimbabwe, winning against Australia was spectacular. Meanwhile, Australia are caught in solving their internal conundrum with Usman Khawaja and Matthew Wade under scrutiny in this final clash. Josh Hazlewood’s absence would hurt the Australia camp which brings to Pat Cumming spearheading the pace attack.
Australian captain Steve Smith said Sunday he was considering fielding three spinners in the must-win Test against Bangladesh after their shock loss on a turning wicket in the series opener. Australia suffered their first-ever Test defeat against Bangladesh and are desperate to restore some lost pride. Bangladesh, ranked ninth in the ICC Test rankings to Australia’s fourth, are hoping to shed their underdog status with a series sweep against Smith’s men. If Australia lose this clash, they would dip to all-time low ranking at No. 6, since 1988. Australia have recalled left-arm spinner Steve O’Keefe for the injured Hazlewood and could play him alongside their frontline spinners Nathan Lyon and Ashton Agar.
Bangladesh came agonisingly close to beating England in Chittagong last year when they needed 33 runs on the fifth day with two wickets in hand.
All the focus will be on the spinners after their splendid show in the first Test. The only way Australia can keep this series alive is by leveling it ahead of the bigger event – The Ashes.
Squads:
Bangladesh: Mushfiqur Rahim (c &wk), Tamim Iqbal, Soumya Sarkar, Imrul Kayes, Shakib Al Hasan, Nasir Hossain, Sabbir Rahman, Mehedi Hasan, Shafiul Islam, Taijul Islam, Mustafizur Rahman, Mominul Haque, Liton Das, Taskin Ahmed
Australia: Steve Smith (c), David Warner, Ashton Agar, Hilton Cartwright, Pat Cummins, Peter Handscomb (wk), Matthew Wade (wk), Steve O’Keefe, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Glenn Maxwell, Matt Renshaw, Mitchell Swepson and Jackson Bird.
