While the majority of the cricketing world is waiting for The Ashes to begin, the Test match action this week actually gets going in Dhaka on Wednesday when Bangladesh go up against Afghanistan in a solitary five-day match.
Given that this is a standalone Test match it is struggling for context, particularly with no World Test Championship status on it, but for the two teams involved it is a chance to begin to build something in the longest format of the game.
Bangladesh
Bangladesh have been around in Test cricket long enough where they should be competitive in the format at the very least and part of being at that level is dispatching the newer teams to Test matches with the minimum of fuss. Here they get the chance to show that they are at that level even if they have a couple of key players missing. While this is their only Test match before the World Cup, the talk of strengthening the importance of the World Test Championship should have Bangladesh keen to prove their worth over these five days.
We know that pitches in Bangladesh are often very home biased but the talk about this one is more about what the seamers can do on it rather than the spinners. That probably makes more sense than normal with this match coming in the middle of the monsoon season in this part of the world so it will be interesting to see if Bangladesh have a seam attack which can get the job done in favourable conditions, and whether their batters can step up to a stiffer challenge.
Afghanistan
Afghanistan are still very new to Test match cricket, so much so that this is just their seventh Test match and their first for a couple of years. This is a nation that prides itself on cricket and while their success has come in the shorter formats of the game, much of that is down to that being all they have been regularly exposed to. The tourists have the chance to prove that they can hold their own in the Test arena here and that they deserve more matches to showcase their skills.
Whenever a new team are on the scene in Test cricket the first thing which comes under scrutiny is their bowling unit. If you go back a couple of weeks, Ireland in a similar situation to Afghanistan here were outclassed with the ball in hand and it wouldn’t look good were that to happen to Afghanistan. On paper at least that doesn’t look as likely to be the case. The challenge might actually be whether their batting has enough quality to put scores on the board and help their bowlers.
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Team News
Bangladesh will be without Shakib Al Hasan for this match as he has a finger injury. Tamim Iqbal is a doubt with a back issue and there are doubts whether Taskin Ahmed will be risked in the potentially greasy conditions.
Afghanistan have chosen to rest Rashid Khan for this match after his heavy workload around the franchise circuit. Bahir Shah, Karim Jamat and Izharulhaq Naveed are all in line to make their Test debuts in this match.
Betting
One-off matches are never easy to bet on at the best of times because on a lot of occasions you have to guess motivation as much as how the match might play out. This one is slightly different in that regard because the motivation should come naturally for both teams with them having a point to prove in this format of the game. Where it becomes harder though is when we take a look at the weather forecast which has a lot of rain in it, especially towards the end of each day.
That makes me think this won’t be a high scoring match. There is a good chance Bangladesh roll over Afghanistan in these conditions anyway but in order for the total runs market to avoid being voided we only need 200 overs if the game is a rain-affected draw. That feels possible and given the potential for chunks of the match to be washed out I think the under on the 953.5 line is worth playing. These two teams aren’t known for huge scoring innings at the best of times and these don’t feel like conditions which will change that.
Tips
Back Under 953.5 runs for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
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