Playing their first Test series down under in 23 years and fresh off a mauling in the warm-up game, few expected a weakened Bangladesh side to be on the top after the first day of the series. Nahid had taken 11 wickets in the two-Test series against Pakistan that Bangladesh clean swept in May, including a five-wicket haul, but a hamstring injury kept him out of the series. Shoriful Islam was also ruled out of the first Test due to a hamstring issue.
In their Bangladesh recovered from 110-6 to 263, but then let Cricket Australia XI go from 139-5 to 355. Even that would have been fine, had they not collapsed for a mere 54 as uncapped seamer Campbell Thompson bowled unchanged to take 8-25.
Australia, meanwhile, were full strength. Their Fab Four reunited to bolster a stacked-up batting order. But Bangladesh didn’t take long to assert their authority on the game.
Hasan Mahmud had an indecisive Jake Wearherald caught behind after a sustained period of pressure. Travis Head followed his opening partner in Mahmud’s next over, chopping a length ball onto the stumps. Steve Smith was then dropped on two. Marnus Labuschagne and Cameron Green’s respective lean runs continued, with Ebadot Hussain and Taskin Ahmed accounting for their wickets, respectively.
A strong start for Bangladesh 🇧🇩
After bowling Australia out for 198, Bangladesh have made a positive start with the bat on day one 💪#AUSVBAN #Cricket pic.twitter.com/lxzVd12DKh
Smith held onto one end, and with Alex Carey, added 55 runs for the fifth wicket – the only fifty-plus stand in the Australia innings. But Ebadot forced Carey to play on, before Taskin produced the delivery of the day to send back Beau Webster, striking top of off.
Mahmud cleaned up the tail (and Smith), taking two wickets on either side of tea to bowl out Australia for 198. Smith top-scored with 71 but the story would have been much different had Tanzid Hasan Tamim held on to his catch when he was only eight deliveries in. All 10 wickets were picked up by Bangladesh quicks on a conducive pitch, with Mahmud finishing with a career-best 6-55.
The batters then further strengthened Bangladesh’s hold on the proceedings, getting to 96-1 in only 24 overs by stumps. Mitchell Starc snared Shadman Islam for a 30-ball 20, but Tanzid and Mominul Haque remained unbeaten, with the latter hitting six fours in 35 so far.
Also read: How Bangladesh built their greatest pace attack ever
Notably, the last time Bangladesh toured Australia for a Test series in 2003, they failed to bowl out the hosts across the two matches. Twenty-three years later, they have already done so on day one of the series.
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