Australian bowling quartet returns as Bangladesh make a visit Downunder after 23 years
ICC World Test Championship
Bangladesh have arrived on the Australian shores for a two-match Test series starting on Thursday. This is just the second time Bangladesh will be playing red-ball cricket in Australia and their third-ever tour in the Aussie conditions across formats. The visitors have been struggling with a few injury concerns mainly in the fast-bowling department with their star speedster Nahid Rana ruled out of this tour and the left-armer Shoriful Islam missing the first Test. Litton Das was a late addition to the side but his presence for the first Test still remains under doubt.
The hosts on the other hand have named their first-choice squad welcoming back their premier bowlers. Captain Pat Cummins returns after being absent bulk of the Ashes and the T20 World Cup 2026 with a busy one-year period ahead. The selectors also named both Nathan Lyon and Josh Hazlewood but Michael Neser has suffered a calf injury in training forcing him to be out for a few weeks. Travis Head and Jake Weatherland will continue their opening partnership post the Ashes. Darwin and Mackay will host the two Test matches as this will be the first instance in 22 years Australia will host a Test this early in their home calendar.
At last, Bangladesh gets their chance Downunder
For the longest time Bangladesh have been hard-done by giants like Australia and England not giving the Asian side any exposure in the longest format. Since their debut in 2000, they have played only three series versus Australia and five against England but have never played both teams in the World Test Championship. Their last visit to England was in 2010 and it's been 23 years now since their only visit to these shores where they played a two-match Test series in 2023. Bangladesh were scheduled to host Australia in the inaugural WTC but the tour was called off due to COVID.
Bangladesh have made some giant strides with the red-ball in the last two years. They whitewashed Pakistan both home and away, drew a series in West Indies and hold a record of 8-8 in the last 17 Tests. They will finally get their chance against the big teams in this cycle. Australia are currently hosting them while England are scheduled to visit them next year for another two-match clash. The Asian country will then make a return visit for a one-off Test at Lord's which is not a part of WTC but will work as a preparatory game for England in the lead-up to next year's Ashes.
For now the focus remains here. Najmul Hossain Shanto, Bangladesh's most successful captain in Test cricket has his task cut out in extremely tough and foreign surroundings against the World Test Championship runner-ups and table toppers. Australia has lost only 1 of the eight games they have played in this edition but have not played in this format since January. Mushfiqur Rahim, Bangladesh's highest run-scorer and the most experienced player in Test cricket will relish this tour which will be his first in the country for a career spanning over 21 years.
Bangladesh started the year exceptionally, losing only one of the six series they played in all formats at home but endured a terrible away tour to Zimbabwe last month. Their batters could not adjust with the extra bounce as they lost the one-off Test by an innings and the ODIs 1-2 but managed to bounce back with a 2-1 win in the T20I series. To make matters worse they also lost the Warm-up game with Cricket Australia XI by an innings and 38 runs folding for just 54 in the second innings. The visitors will draw some inspiration from the fact that none of the current Aussie cricketers have played a Test match at two venues and if their batters and bowlers can somehow adjust to the bouncy conditions, we might see a fighting display from the visitors against the No.1 side in ICC Test rankings.
Full-strength Australian team faces a scheduling unknown
Australia won the Ashes 4-1 at home even with an second-string squad which saw skipper Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon absent from the bulk of that series. Steve Smith and now-retired Usman Khawaja also missed a game each but the reserves stood up to help them continue their invincible form with the red ball. George Bailey ultimately has the fully fit squad at his disposal with only Michael Neser out of action due to a right calf strain who was anyway not a part of the original squad selector for this tour.
Travis Head, who became Australia's unplanned opener at the Ashes will resume his opening partnership with Jake Weatherland, a debutant in the last series. Head, who is still coming to terms with the new role responded to the task with three centuries in nine innings including a 123 off 83 balls at Perth and will be looking to extend his excellent form at home where he averages 53.55 in 37 Tests. Head has scored a century at all the six home grounds he has played at and averages more than 48 in all those grounds except the MCG. In fact, Head has scored 10 of his 11 centuries at home with his hundred in the 2023 WTC final at The Oval versus India being his only ton outside Australia. He will be hoping to add both Darwin and Mackay to the same list in the next two games.
The hosts have decided to persist with Marnus Labuschagne whose wretched run with the bat has continued since his last century in 2023. Labuschagne averages 24.06 in his last 17 Tests although he did enjoy a decent domestic season last year. Steve Smith, Alex Carey and Josh Inglis are also part of the squad. There will be a toss-up between Cameron Green and Beau Webster for the all-rounder spot or both of them might play if Australia decides to bench Inglis. Bowling will feature the quartet of Starc, Cummins, Hazlewood and Lyon who might play their first game together since July 2025. Scott Boland rounds up the bowling options. Starc, who recently tied with Rangana Herath as the highest left-arm wicket-taker with 433 wickets in Test cricket needs 7 wickets to get ahead of Dale Steyn and become the tenth highest wicket-taker in this format.
The Aussie International home schedule generally begins from October with Test cricket falling in November-January window. Australia have never hosted a Test match in August and the earliest they played a Test at home was in both 2003 and 2004 when Darwin and Cairns hosted both Tests with Bangladesh and Sri Lanka respectively in the month of July. Incidentally, those are the only two Tests ever played at Darwin. This will be a test for the hosts who find themselves in a unique situation as they play a Test match even before the commencement of their domestic season. However, given the visitor's lack of experience in these circumstances, Australia should find things easy and will look to strengthen their hold at the top of the WTC standings.
Untimely injuries to quicks, recent batting form disrupts Bangladesh's rhythm
Nahid Rana has taken World cricket by storm since his debut in 2024 with the express pace and uncomfortable bounce he is able to extract with his height. Rana has been unplayable this year taking 44 wickets across formats at a bowling average of 18.32. Bangladesh suffered a shock when Rana injured his left side-strain in the Zimbabwe T20Is forcing him out of this tour leaving the Asian nation missing their biggest weapon in the unfamiliar bouncy wickets of Australia. Although the physios and the selectors had managed Rana's fitness effectively including resting him from the one-off Test with Zimbabwe, his absence here is being rued by everyone. It would have been an exciting prospect to watch Rana against the World No.1 side but for now Bangladesh will unfortunately have to do manage without him.
Left-arm pacer Shoriful Islam will also be absent the opening game due to a hamstring injury he picked up on the Zimbabwe tour but is expected to be fit for the next one. Taskin Ahmed will headline the pace-bowling attack which includes Hasan Mahmud, Khaled Ahmed, Ebadot Hossain and the uncapped Musfik Hasan suddenly leaving them in a precarious position. The trio of Mahmud, Ebadot and Khaled had a disappointing outing in the one-off Test with Zimbabwe last month as they failed to adjust with the extra bounce offered by the Harare wicket in absence of the first-choice attack as Bangladesh lost by an innings. Mahmud has recently enjoyed a productive County stint with Kent and was their best bowler in the Warm-up game taking 4-42 which should give him some confidence. The selectors will also face a dilemma of going in with either five proper bowlers or prefer Soumya Sarkar's military medium pace as Mehidy Hasan Miraz will take the role of the sole spinner.
The real struggle though lies in the batting department with the problem starting at the top. Their openers have been at the bottom in terms of average in the World Test Championship history and they have again ended up at the last spot with just 113 runs @ 14.12 from four games in this cycle. They have again left out Mahmudul Hasan Joy due to bad form meaning Shadman Islam will most likely be partnered by the one Test match old, Tanzid Hasan Tamim who has a habit of throwing away his wicket in white-ball cricket. The middle order is held by the experienced Monimul Haque, captain Shanto and veteran Mushfiqur Rahim. Shanto and Rahim lead the run-scoring charts for their side in the WTC 2025-27 edition. Wicket-keeper Litton Das is expected to be passed after suffering a calf injury in June although he missed the Warm-up fixture as a precaution. Jaker Ali and Amite Hasan are the reserve keepers in case Litton Das does not make the final XI. The recent meltdown by their batters in the Zimbabwe Test and the warm-up fixture has exposed the technical issues especially in away conditions with Mehidy's hundred being the only bright spot. Batting coach Mohammad Ashraful will need to address them before the launch of this series or we might be seeing a one-sided affair between these two unmatched teams.
Aussie bowling-attack under scanner due to tight calendar
35-year old Josh Hazlewood has missed 9 of the last ten home Ashes Tests. He was ruled out of the 2023 WTC final and then suffered another injury in the Border-Gavaskar series at home in 2024 after playing only two Test matches. Multiple Side-strains, hamstrings, Achilles tendon and calf injuries have raised serious questions over Hazlewood's red-ball career specifically since he has become an all-format bowler for Australia in the past few years.
Captain Pat Cummins suffered a major lumbar bone stress injury on the tour of West Indies last year which rules him out for almost eight months as he made a sole appearance in the third Ashes Test last year but decided to rest for the remaining two matches with the series already in the bag. Cummins is finally back in the whites recovering fully from the injury and will continue his role as the leader of the side. Their premier spinner, Nathan Lyon has now been injured in the middle of the the last two Ashes series. After injuring his calf in 2023, Lyon sustained a hamstring injury in Adelaide last December which forced him to miss the final two Tests. Amidst all this drama, Mitchell Starc has been a consistent present for side featuring in 28 of the last 29 Tests for his country also winning the Player of the Series award in the Ashes series with 31 wickets in 5 games. Although Starc did suffer a shoulder injury in last January, he has recovered before the beginning of their bumper year which features a potential 21 Tests until next August and an ODI World Cup in October 2027.
Rotation of quicks will be crucial for Pat Cummins and his team in a busy calendar featuring a potential 21 Tests in 12 months
Injuries to their first-choice bowlers forced the selectors to try out a second-string bowling attack which augurs well for them in a busy period ahead as they got a taste of International cricket and performed admirably versus arch-rivals England. Scott Boland, Michael Neser, Brendon Doggett and Jhye Richardson form the pace-bowling while Todd Murphy and Matthew Kuhnemann remain Lyon's understudy in the slow-bowling department. Among the domestic talents, Fergus O Neill, Nathan McAndrew and Corey Rocchiccioli who took 6-83 in the Warm-ups are also knocking the door. With the bowling domain covered, Australia's weakling remains their batting which has suffered multiple collapses in their last few Test series but has been masked by the excellence of the bowlers. They remain short of able back-ups with only a few names like Matt Renshaw, Jason Sangha, Kurtis Patterson and the 35-year old Peter Handscomb making a strong case for selection in case of any absence.
Darwin and Mackay finally get a taste of Test cricket
A total of 126 grounds have hosted Test match cricket in the history so far with Australia contributing to 11 of them. One of those 11 grounds is Marrara Stadium, Darwin which hosted two games back in 2003 and 2004. Darwin will eventually get it's chance to host it's third Test in the opening Test between Australia and Bangladesh on Thursday. Great Barrier Reef Arena, Mackay has hosted three Men's ODIs, three Women's ODIs and two Women's T20Is but has never hosted a Test and will become the 127th ground ever to host a match of the longest format in the final Test of the series starting on August 22.
Australia has been using drop-in pitches for a few years now especially on venues like MCG, Optus Stadium and the Adelaide Oval. The pitches in recent times have been a struggle for the batters with the fast bowlers enjoying a larger say in the last five years taking 84% of the wickets fallen with an average of 25.6 versus an overall aggregate of 28. The slow-bowlers average 39.95 however, the home spinners bring it down to 27.19 taking 82 of the total 124 wickets. The batters have averaged 26.77 in the last five years when batting here compared to an overall average of 30.3 in the last 149 years.
The Darwin pitch will also be a drop-in but there is not enough information available with the last Test match coming in 2004. The pitch should assist batters early given they adapt to the traditional Aussie pace and bounce and is expected to break later due to heat which might bring spinners into play. Sunny weather is expected on all five days with the temperature reaching a high of 32° C and no chances of rain. It will be interesting to see what the captains decide at the toss given the uncertainty around the playing surface and the conditions on offer. Bangladesh have some recent red-ball cricket under their belt and they need to materialize every single opportunity in the field against an under-cooked Australian team if they want to make a match out of this.
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