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The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Saturday confirmed fielding an all-pace bowling line-up against Bangladesh in the first Test starting from August 21 onwards.
The first Test of the two-match affair against Bangladesh will be held at Rawalpindi. In a press release by the board, it was mentioned that two players, spinner Abrar Ahmed and top-order batter Kamran Ghulam were released from the squad in order to give them some game time during the second practice game between Pakistan Shaheens, the 'A' team of Pakistan and Bangladesh 'A', which will take place from August 20-23, as per Wisden. With that, the team for the first Test is left with an all-pace attack, with the exact composition of the bowling line-up yet to be revealed. Seven players currently playing with the Shaheens team, Mir Hamza, Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Huraira, Naseem Shah, Saim Ayub, Sarfaraz Ahmed and Saud Shakeel have been called up to the main Test squad. Once the second practice game is over, Abrar and Kamran will rejoin the test team. Among pacers in the main Test line-up are: Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah, Aamer Jamal, Khurram Shahzad and Mir Hamza. Part-timer bowlers Salman Ali Agha, Saim Ayub and Shakeel though, can provide some overs of spin. In their last home Test, Pakistan played three frontline seam bowlers Naseem, Hamza and Hasan Ali while the top spinner was Abrar. Salman was the secondary spin option. The second Test of the two-match series is set to be played from August 30 to September 3. With two wins from their five Tests so far, Pakistan have a point percentage of 36.66, which has placed them below India, Australia, New Zealand and Sri Lanka in the World Test Championship (WTC) 2023-25 cycle. Pakistan squad: Shan Masood (c), Saud Shakeel (vc), Aamir Jamal (subject to fitness), Abdullah Shafique, Abrar Ahmed, Babar Azam, Kamran Ghulam, Khurram Shahzad, Mir Hamza, Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Huraira, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Naseem Shah, Saim Ayub, Salman Ali Agha, Sarfaraz Ahmed (wk), Shaheen Afridi. (ANI)
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