DHAKA, May 27, 2025 (BSS)-Bangladesh vowed to make a strong comeback by 
leaving aside the agony of a shocking series defeat to United Arab Emirates 
(UAE) as they take on Pakistan in the three-match T20 International series 
opening game tomorrow (Wednesday) at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore. 

The match starts at 9 PM (Bangladesh Time) and will be aired live on T 
Sports.

While they went to UAE as absolute favourite, this time they will start as 
underdog, given their track record against Pakistan.

The last time the two teams met in an Asian Games competition where both 
teams sent their second string side. Still it was considered as an 
International game. So stat will tell that Bangladesh won the last game 
between the two sides.

Overall they met 19 times in International cricket with Pakistan winning 16, 
most of which came in a dominant fashion. Bangladesh won three including that 
Asian Games match in Hangzhou, China in 2023.

Apart from that Asian Games victory, Bangladesh's two victories against 
Pakistan came in 2015 and 2016, both at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket 
Stadium in Mirpur. So apparently, Bangladesh's main team couldn't beat 
Pakistan since 2016.

However, the main team of the two teams met last time in 2022 World Cup in 
Adelaide where Pakistan won the game by five wickets, thanks to Shaheen Shah 
Afridi's brilliant bowling.

Afridi who has been in top form in recently concluded Pakistan Super League 
(PSL), was rested from the series, so as Babar Azam and Muhammad Rizwan, the 
two familiar tormentors of Bangladesh.

But all of the Pakistan players who are the part of the squad against 
Bangladesh did considerably well in the PSL, which is a threatening sign for 
the visitors.

The Bangladesh had already started their practice session for the Pakistan 
series, mainly focusing on rectifying the errors they made in UAE.

Skipper Liton Das put blame on dew factor as the main reason behind their 
astonishing series defeat. Dew won't be factor in Lahore as the PSL game 
suggested.

But still Bangladesh practiced with the wet ball to cope with the dew effect. 
It was special practice session, which they did ahead of coming to UAE 
despite knowing that dew could make the situation adverse for them. 

"We are keen to rectify all of the errors in those practice sessions ahead of 
the first game against Pakistan," BCB director Nazmul Abedeen Fahim who is 
with the team in Pakistan said.

"The coaching staff will do everything what needs to be done to do well 
against Pakistan."

Bangladesh also suffered players related blow ahead of the series with pacer 
Mustafizur Rahman and allrounder Soumya Sarkar being ruled out of the 
Pakistan series due to injury. Soumya even couldn't play any of the three 
matches against UAE while Mustafizur joined Delhi Capitals to play IPL after 
the first match.

Mustafizur, however, received an injury in his last match in IPL. Considering 
his form and death over bowling skill, his injury is a big blow for a team, 
which is trying to quell the pain of a shocking series defeat.
Pakistan have managed to win only three of their last 13 T20Is, two against 
minnows Zimbabwe, and slumped to eighth in the T20I rankings since the 2024 
T20 World Cup.

In this period, Bangladesh, which are ranked ninth, have won just four of 
their last 12 T20Is and lost series against lower-ranked United States (2024) 
and United Arab Emirates earlier this month.

Bangladesh squad: Liton Das (captain), Mahedi Hasan, Tanzid Hasan Tamim, 
Parvez Hossain, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Najmul Hossain Shanto, Towhid Hridoy, 
Shamim Patwari, Jaker Ali Anik, Rishad Hossain, Tanvir Islam, Syed Khaled 
Ahmed, Hasan Mahmud, Tanzim Hasan Sakib and Shoriful Islam.

Pakistan squad: Salman Ali Agha (c), Shadab Khan (vc), Abrar Ahmed, Faheem 
Ashraf, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Hassan Nawaz, Hussain Talat, 
Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Haris, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Muhammad Irfan Khan, 
Naseem Shah, Sahibzada Farhan, Saim Ayub.