‘We didn’t expect BD to play this way’

KHULNA, Bangladesh: Pakistan conceded on Saturday that they were stunned by the attacking strategy of Bangladesh who drew the first Test after conceding a big first innings lead to the tourists.
“We didn’t expect Bangladesh to play this way,” Pakistan batsman Asad Shafiq said after his team was surprised by the hosts registering their best partnership in Test history. Tamim Iqbal and Imrul Kayes collected rapid hundreds for themselves and remain unbeaten as Bangladesh ended the fourth day at 273 for 0.
Pakistan had the upper hand in Khulna - a lead of 296 runs - but two poor sessions have softened their position. They may not lose the Khulna Test from here, but all thoughts of victory need to be put on hold.
Underestimating Bangladesh had cost them all the limited-overs matches on the tour and today they committed the same mistake. Mohammad Hafeez conceded four sixes in nine expensive overs. Junaid bowled eight overs went for 5.5 per over. Zulfiqar Babar was relatively more economical but couldn’t provide the breakthrough. Wahab Riaz conceded 57 in 13 overs at 4.38 while Yasir Shah gave away 4.40 in 15 overs.
Misbah was helpless too. He was open to quirky fields, and even went to the trouble of going to a couple of men and telling them exactly where to stand. But Tamim and Imrul would not be budged. There was perhaps an argument to attempt a part-timer, like Shafiq or Younis Khan, to break the Bangladesh openers’ concentration but Pakistan’s assistant coach, Shahid Aslam, backed the tactics attempted on the day.
“Misbah did everything he needed to do,” Aslam said. “He did exactly what he done to get them out in the first innings. We had to get a breakthrough and he tried all of his five bowlers but it didn’t work and it happens sometime.”
“It’s part of cricket and that’s how Test cricket rolls on,” Aslam added.
Shafiq echoed the same comments. “We lost three sessions so far out of twelve and this doesn’t reflect that we played bad cricket,” he said. “But we have to give some credit the way they batted. They played aggressive cricket and attacked our bowlers. We weren’t expecting it and that’s the reason our bowlers came under pressure.
“I don’t know what exactly went wrong but Bangladesh played very well. We had wanted to get them bowled out as quickly as we can but the plan didn’t go well as both of their batsman played unexpectedly [well].”