Afghanistan look to tick boxes in rare Test outing against confident Bangladesh

October 8, 2026
1:27 pm

Big picture: Bangladesh start as favourites

Najmul Hossain Shanto led the side effectively in Australia with stunning performances from Tanzid Hasan, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Hasan Mahmud and Shoriful Islam to win the Test in Darwin. Mahmud then continued his form in county cricket with Kent, while Mehidy was consistent in his short replacement stint at the CPL, which are good portents for this one-off game in Abu Dhabi.

Bangladesh also have an in-form Towhid Hridoy in their line-up, just over a month after he scored an unbeaten 352 for Bangladesh A against South Africa A in Potchefstroom. It was not just a Bangladesh record, but the highest score by a visiting batter in first-class cricket in South Africa.

Bangladesh have some major strugglers too. Tanzid is short of runs since the Test century in Darwin, while Litton Das has scored exactly two runs in his last five innings across international formats, including three ducks in as many Test innings in Australia. Mominul Haque and Shadman Islam are short of runs too.

As for Afghanistan, there is a lot of room for improvement, especially after they were beaten soundly by India in their last Test match.

New captain Rahmat Shah will want to take the team in a new direction in collaboration with Pybus.

They have dropped both left-arm spinners Sharafuddin Ashraf and Nangeyalia Kharote, believing Bangladesh could be vulnerable against wristspin, retaining Qais Ahmad and adding Khalil Gurbaz, while left-arm spinner Zia-ur-Rehman comes back after more than a year.

Afghanistan’s main concern would be their batting. Sediqullah Atal and Abdul Malik will open the innings with the aggressive Rahmanullah Gurbaz taking up the No. 3 position. The main source of strength are captain Shah and Hashmatullah Shahidi, while Shahidullah Kamal would be expected to bring his domestic form – he was the top run-getter with 538 from eight innings in the just-concluded Ahmad Shah Abdali first-class tournament back home – into the Test arena.

Afghanistan LLWDL (last five completed matches, most recent first)
Bangladesh LWLWW

In the spotlight: Rahmat Shah and Najmul Hossain Shanto

Afghanistan will bank on the experience of Rahmat Shah, who replaced Shahidi as the Test and ODI captain after the Test defeat in India. Shah is a heavy scorer, and the only batter from Afghanistan to have scored 1000 Test runs and hit three centuries. He has provided middle-order stability for the last 13 years, a quality not always present in a side more known for explosive batting and canny spin-bowling.

Rahmat’s counterpart Najmul Hossain Shanto is at a different crossroads in his capacity as the Bangladesh captain. He has already established himself as the most successful Test captain in the country’s history, and now has the chance to shape the team’s future in a way that no Bangladesh captain ever got the chance to. Bangladesh have important WTC matches ahead, which means that Shanto cannot afford to take the foot off the gas against Afghanistan. A win in Abu Dhabi will place him in rarefied territory as it will be his tenth as the Test captain.

Team news: More wristspin for Afghanistan

Afghanistan have a like-for-like replacement for pace-bowling allrounder Azmatullah Omarzai in Ismat Alam. Legspinners Qais and Khalil Gurbaz are likely to get in with Afghanistan expected to go spin-heavy. Ziaur Rahman, the seamer who played the Test against India in June, looks likelier to get a game than Zia-ur-Rehman, the left-arm spinner.

Afghanistan (probable): 1 Sediqullah Atal, 2 Abdul Malik, 3 Rahmanullah Gurbaz, 4 Rahmat Shah (capt), 5 Hashmatullah Shahidi, 6 Shahidullah, 7 Afsar Zazai (wk), 8 Ismat Alam, 9 Qais Ahmed, 10 Ziaur Rahman/Mohammad Saleem, 11 Khalil Gurbaz.

Including Hridoy will be a big call as it would mean shuffling the middle order. Bangladesh are also likely to consider offspinner Nayeem Hasan on this Abu Dhabi pitch.

Bangladesh (probable): 1 Tanzid Hasan, 2 Soumya Sarkar/Shadman Islam, 3 Mominul Haque, 4 Najmul Hossain Shanto (capt), 5 Mushfiqur Rahim, 6 Litton Das (wk), 7 Mehidy Hasan Miraz, 8 Nayeem Hasan, 9 Taijul Islam, 10 Hasan Mahmud, 11 Shoriful Islam.

Pitch and conditions

Five years ago, Sean Williams described the Abu Dhabi pitch as a “carpet on one side and a dustbowl on the other“. It has generally been slow, like when Afghanistan beat Bangladesh in the ODIs last year. The temperature could climb to nearly 40 degrees during the day.

“I am looking at the wicket and the wicket looks good. It looks like it can be a little bit slow but it looks to be a good wicket. So we are preparing for a good wicket and we know that we’re going to have to come up against a number of spinners and so we’re preparing for all that.”
Bangladesh coach Phil Simmons