BAN vs PAK: Strengths and weaknesses

Beginning today, the Dan Cake ODI Cricket Series between Bangladesh and Pakistan is featuring three matches, all to be played at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur. Before the South Asian cricketing nations lock horns, let's look at the relative strengths and weaknesses of both Bangladesh and Pakistan teams.

Bangladesh

With Anamul Haque still out due to his shoulder injury, the opening slot is up for grabs to partner Tamim Iqbal in this ODI series. Hard-hitting batsmen Rony Talukdar will be making his debut, and most likely to open the innings for Bangladesh. In recent matches, Bangladesh have lost wickets early with Tamim throwing his wicket away with reckless batting, a definite weakness for the Tigers in this upcoming series against Pakistan.

Although Bangladesh bowlers perform relatively well in home conditions, their death-over bowling has let them down more often than not. During the last power-play overs when batsmen look to score heavily, Bangladesh's slow and fast bowlers fail to keep things tight, and give away far too many runs for their liking.

Mashrafe Mortaza is notorious for being expensive in the last ten overs while Taskin Ahmed's inexperience shows as he bowls on both sides of the wicket. The spinners including Shakib Al Hasan usually find things tough with batsmen swinging and slogging with their big bats. Rubel Hossain is probably the lone exception among all the Bangladeshi bowlers with his zippy yorkers and clever change of pace.

On the bright side, Bangladesh's middle order has never looked so formidable with Mahmudullah Riyad, Mushfiqur Rahim, Shakib Al Hasan, Sabbir Rahman and Nasir Hossain in the lineup. Mahmudullah is enjoying the form of his life, Mushfiqur is consistently getting runs while Shakib's bat is doing all the talking! Sabbir and Nasir's late cameos come in handy when Bangladesh look to up the ante when finishing the innings. All in all, Bangladesh's batting is looking better than ever.

The home crowd support for Bangladesh Tigers always brings the best out of the cricketers, especially when the match goes down to the wire. Passionate and truly dedicated, Bangladesh fans will become the 12th man in the field, something Tigers can exploit as they look to beat Pakistan for the first time since the famous victory at Northampton during the 1999 ICC Cricket World Cup.

Pakistan

Inexperience of Pakistan's ODI squad will probably be their Achilles heel during their tour of Bangladesh. Saad Nasim, Sami Aslam and Mohammad Rizwan have yet to play ODI cricket for their country. Fast bowlers Rahat Ali and Ehsan Adil have played only six matches each. Their captain Azhar Ali has played only fourteen matches before being appointed captain of the one-day side.

 Yasir Shah, Pakistan's premier legbreak bowler has only played two ODIs. Slow left-arm orthodox bowler Haris Sohail has seventeen ODIs to his name. Only Saeed Ajmal and Mohammad Hafeez have played over a hundred matches in their career. The rest of their teammates look rather green in one-day international cricket.

Apart from their inexperience, Pakistan's batting woes stick out like a sore thumb in this analysis. Their batsmen are prone to throw their wickets away after getting their eyes in, and repeatedly crack under pressure from disciplined bowling.

The ODI series against New Zealand and Sri Lanka before a lackluster world cup campaign amply asserts Pakistan's batting frailties, a constant source of anxiety for their coach. Even in sub continental conditions, they have failed frequently to chase targets or post a challenging total for their bowlers to defend.

On the positive side, Pakistan's pace duo of Wahab Riaz and Junaid Khan can trouble any batsmen in the world, even while bowling on batting-friendly wickets. Wahab is brimming with confidence after the world cup while Juanid is rearing to go after a lengthy lay-off due to injury. Not only are they lethal with the new ball, their death-over bowling is remarkably accurate and effective.

Pakistan's best bowler in all formats in the past few years, Saeed Ajmal is back after remedial work on his bowling action. If he cannot bowl his "doosra", he may not be as successful as he was before he was called for a suspect action.