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The spotlight once again will be on the wicket of the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium as Bangladesh will be looking to win their maiden T20I series over Pakistan when the two teams face-off in the second of the three-match series in Mirpur today.  

The match will start at 6:00pm, and T Sports will telecast it live.

Bangladesh thrashed Pakistan by eight wickets in the first match on Monday to take a 1-0 lead in the series.  But after that, Pakistan head coach Mike Hesson slammed the Mirpur wicket. 

‘I think it is not ideal for anybody,’ Hesson said on the wicket where his team was bowled out for 110 in 19.3 overs.

‘Teams are trying to prepare for the Asia Cup or the [T20] World Cup. It is not acceptable. It is still no excuse for some of the decisions we made with the bat. But this pitch is not up to international standards,’ said Hesson.

The wickets of Mirpur are historically some of the lowest-scoring in T20I.

In the 64 matches played at this venue, the collective strike rate of the batters stands at 110.85, the lowest recorded for any ground where a minimum of 20 matches have been contested among the full-member nations of the ICC.

Hesson also warned that playing on this type of wicket wouldn’t help Bangladesh, especially in overseas conditions. 

‘I don’t think it helps them when they leave Bangladesh. But I also think batting first in these situations is challenging. When you aren’t quite sure whether 100 or 130 or 150 is good enough,’ said the former head coach of New Zealand.

‘I don’t think [the pitch] is good for anybody. It still doesn’t take away the fact that you have to perform better on any surfaces. We will look at it as a team,’ he added.

Hesson also mentioned that the wickets of the BPL were good ones. In the last season, the collective strike rate was 110.85. The ground saw some big scores too.

‘I am not here to help Bangladesh. You need good cricket wickets to develop cricketers. There were some good wickets during the BPL, to be fair. It is not up to the standard when international cricket is being played,’ Hesson further said.

But prior to the series, Bangladesh captain Liton Das gave a probable explanation for why the BPL saw big scores.

‘From my experience, I think there are two factors. One is, during BPL, there is dew so that the batting becomes easier. And I don’t think every team in the BPL has five quality bowlers. So if you target one or two, you can make a big score. But the international team has five to six quality bowlers,’ said Liton.

However, Parvez Hossain, who smashed an unbeaten 56 off 39 to ace Bangladesh’s chase, didn’t agree with Hesson.

‘Nah, it didn’t feel like that. We scored 110 runs in 16 overs. Had we got the opportunity to play 20 overs, we could have scored 160 runs. So, I don’t think so. Maybe they couldn’t adjust to the pitch, whereas we tried to do so,’ said the left-handed opener.

Parvez also reminded everyone that the wicket of Mirpur always had been bowling-friendly.

He said, ‘It is normal that the bowlers tend to get benefits from the Mirpur wicket. We tried to get set after assessing the wicket quickly.’

The batter also mentioned that the wicket had uneven bounce, but that wasn’t to that extent.

‘One or two might have had an uneven bounce because there were some cracks. Otherwise, the bounce was even,’ he said.