Introduction
Pakistan has been desperately looking for a home test win for the last few years. After the successful tour of Australia in March 2022, Pakistan has lost five matches out of nine. Bangladesh beat Pakistan for the first time and snatched their dreams of winning on home soil. Winning a test match has always been challenging for every team, whether you play in home conditions or away. Indeed, it’s a long format that lasts for five days and tests the skill and fitness of players.
Looking forward to these challenges, Bangladesh’s test win is phenomenal and their fans will remember it for years. Furthermore, this victory is a gift to Bangladesh fans due to the political unrest situation in their country. Of course, the Bangla Tigers have registered a historic maiden win against Pakistan followed up by Australia and England.
How did Bangladesh Beat Pakistan?
Pakistan started well in the first innings after Muhammad Rizwan and Saud Shakeel dominated the 1st day with centuries and declared innings at 448/6d. At this stage, no one imagined that Pakistan would lose this game. No doubt, The Bangla Tigers replied strongly and ended the innings with 565 runs on the board with Mushfiqur Rahim scoring a handy innings of 191 runs.
Unfortunately, the second innings of Pakistan left fans disappointed when they were all out for 146 runs with only Rizwan scoring 51 runs. Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Shakib Al Hasan claimed seven wickets together and didn’t allow Pakistan to fight back in the game.
Finally, Bangladesh chased the target of 30 runs with no loss of wickets on the final day. Let’s take a look at the top reasons for Pakistan losing this game!
Babar Azam’s Consistent Failure
Babar Azam is the star performer in Pakistan’s batting lineup who has earned an admirable reputation in the world due to his brilliant performances and records. Unfortunately, Babar has lost form and not performing up to his mark for the last few series including the World Cup and T20 World Cup. Therefore, he has failed to deliver in both the innings against Bangladesh in Rawalpindi and continued to fail. Looking at this poor form, Bangladesh beat Pakistan and upset fans.
Shaheen Afridi’s Pace Problems
Shaheen Afridi has also achieved a good reputation in the world of cricket due to his magnificent performances. However, Shaheen has lost enough pace and line in the recent past may be due to a packed schedule and restless cricket. In the test match against Bangladesh, Shaheen bowled 32 overs and claimed 2 wickets in two innings and fans don’t expect this from Shaheen.
Bangladesh’s Excellent Team Performance
Despite looking at the drawbacks of Babar Azam, Shaheen Afridi, and the overall bad performance of Team Green, we must appreciate the splendid team performance of the Bangladesh cricket team under the newly appointed captain Najmul Hossain Shanto. Impressively, Bangladesh beat Pakistan and dedicated their win to the students who were martyred back in Bangladesh due to political tensions in July.
Why is Pakistan not Winning at Home?
There are several reasons for not winning a test game in the last three years. No doubt, Pakistan didn’t play enough cricket at home due to the ban that lasted for almost a decade. However, this isn’t an excuse, ultimately teams lose confidence when they don’t play at home for a long time. Likewise, Pakistan lacked home test cricket exposure and hardly played three to four series after the serious revival of cricket in 2021.
Thus, lack of home advantage and long absence in test formats have put Pakistan in a tough situation. This is why, the green team makes silly decisions at home and plays like a visiting team on different occasions.
Conclusion
Pakistan has been struggling in test cricket, especially at home. Moreover, winning in Pakistan for Pakistan has become a mammoth task. On the other hand, the home record is impressive for teams like India, Australia, New Zealand, England, and other test-playing nations. Looking at this scenario, Pakistan needs to work on domestic cricket and must promote experienced players in test cricket. This is the best possible way to bring back test cricket pride!
