Pakistan vs Bangladesh: PCB announces 12-man squad for first test against Bangladesh

LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announced a 12-person squad for the first test against Bangladesh on Thursday.

Pakistan and Bangladesh will meet tomorrow (Friday) in the first test of the two-game series. The game is scheduled to be played at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong, starting at 9 a.m. (PST). Led by Babar Azam, the test team includes Mohammad Rizwan (Deputy Captain), Abdullah Shafique, Abid Ali, Azhar Ali, Faheem Ashraf, Fawad Alam, Hasan Ali, Imam-ul-Haq, Nauman Ali, Sajid Khan, Shaheen Shah Afridi.

The second and final test between the two teams will begin on Saturday December 4th at the Sher-e-Bangla Cricket Stadium in Dhaka. Skipper Babar Azam said at a press conference today: "Our team is impressive and will make a good impression this time around in the test championship."

Azam admitted that after months of T20 games, the team had had less time to adjust to test cricket. The Pakistani skipper said his team doesn't take Bangladesh lightly. "The conditions here are different [from Pakistan is used to], so we cannot take Bangladesh lightly," he said. "These conditions are a bit tricky and the batters have to stay on the line to get settled."

Babar Azam said that in order to do well on the series, the Men in Green need to play with focus and patience. Pakistan will be full of confidence against Bangladesh tomorrow. The guests did a 3-0 cleaning against the hosts last week and won the third and final T20 game in the series in an exciting way.

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Meanwhile, the Bangladeshi team is struggling with combat injuries and is entering the series without two of its star players - Shakib Al Hasan and Tamim Iqbal. All-rounder Shakib suffered a hamstring injury against the West Indies in Sharjah last month that ended his T20 World Cup, but he had been added to the testing roster in hopes that he would regain fitness.

But Bangladesh's election chief Minhajul Abedin said on Tuesday: "Shakib has not yet recovered from his injury. He needs further rehabilitation. Our physiotherapist is constantly taking care of him." The men's cricket team is in Bangladesh after a five-year hiatus. It has played three T20Is and will play a second test match starting December 24th.