Bangladesh head coach Phil Simmons has said the team’s Test series win against Pakistan in 2024 was “history”. Pakistan fast bowler Shaheen Shah Afridi also wants to put that series in the “past is past” bin. Both have reasons to distance themselves from it: Simmons wants to guard against complacency, while Afridi wants to forget the Rawalpindi nightmare.
Afridi was dropped after the first Test of that series, having taken just two wickets in the huge defeat. It is reason enough to want to forget that series, though he said Pakistan were ready to counter anything that Bangladesh throw at them this time, which could even be a green top for the first Test starting on May 8 in Mirpur.
“Personally, the past is in the past, and I do not want to dwell on it,” Afridi said on Wednesday. “Our goal is to focus on the present and the future. We are preparing ourselves to win the [World Test] Championship, not just a single series; our collective goal is much larger. We have to play our best cricket.
“First of all, we have to use the conditions well. We have seam bowlers, such as [Muhammad] Abbas bhai and Khurram [Shahzad]. They are coming here from county cricket, so they will be effective if there’s a green track. Our goal is to take 20 wickets and win the match.”
Simmons, who became Bangladesh’s head coach a couple of months after the Rawalpindi triumph, said he wanted the team to make new memories.
“[The 2024 series] is history now. We want to make new history. It doesn’t matter what happened then. Yes, you keep it in your mind because it gives you a boost, but it is a new game and a new place. We are in Bangladesh now, not Pakistan. We have to put those things behind us and focus on Friday.
“I think 90-95% expectations are from outside the dressing room. The media and the public have more expectations than we do in the dressing room. We prepare and look forward to playing; the expectations from the last series do not help us. We try to leave that outside the dressing room.”
Pakistan finished fifth, seventh and ninth in the three WTC cycles so far, and Afridi said they want to perform better in this cycle. Pakistan are currently fifth in the standings, having played just two Tests with one win and a defeat
“If you look at [our performance], we are not satisfied as a team. We played well in the last Test series [against South Africa], but we should have won that series 2-0. They beat India after our series. We won one match against them, so that’s a plus point. But the negative is that we are finishing at six, seven, or eight, which is not suitable for our team. Our main goal should be to finish at the top. If your Test cricket is good, then your ODI and T20I cricket will also be good. For that, fitness definitely needs to be a bit better.”
Simmons is more concerned about what’s in front of him. He said players like Mushfiqur Rahim, Mominul Haque and Taijul Islam – Bangladesh’s Test specialists – don’t have to shift from white-ball to red-ball cricket, as they have mostly played red-ball lately. “It is a more mental shift, but at the same time, there are quite a few guys here who have not played white-ball cricket recently. They have been working with the red ball for the last couple of months, so I think it will be an easier shift.
“It is going to be a good pitch, and we have to put in place how we bat against them. If you want to be higher in the rankings, you have to play [well] against all these top-class bowlers. We know as a unit that we have to bat and bat long against them to try to get big scores. Everybody is in the mindset that they want to get big scores now, which is a good thing.”
