Khurram Shahzad felt Pakistan had done the hard work on day one in Sylhet, even though Litton Das turned what looked like a modest total into something far more competitive. Bangladesh closed on 278 all out; the visiting quick finished with 4 for 81 and the feeling that, with a touch more luck, the hosts might have been out for 200.
“We bowled them out under 300, and this pitch is different to Dhaka,” Shahzad said afterwards. “I think it’ll still be quite good for batting. There were cracks and uneven bounce there. Here, there is not so much and we’ll try to score 400-450.”
Pakistan had earned that optimism by reducing Bangladesh to 116 for 6 not long after lunch. From there, though, the lower order—marshalled by Litton—put on 162 for the last four wickets. The right-hander, increasingly confident as partners fell around him, finished on 126. It felt a lot like his 138 in Rawalpindi a couple of years back, when he and Mehidy Hasan Miraz dragged Bangladesh from 26 for 6 to a match-winning position.
The turning point this time was an awkward Shahzad bouncer when Litton was 52. The ball brushed glove on the way to Mohammad Rizwan but went upstairs only in the replays; on the field Pakistan declined to use their final review. UltraEdge later showed the spike, and Litton made them pay, adding another 74 runs.
Shahzad did not hide his frustration. “We were unlucky to miss that review,” he said. “If we’d got him out then, the results would have been totally different. But it’s part of the game and partnerships can happen. Sometimes it happens that you let momentum go and don’t get the lower order out. If Litton had got out at that stage, I think we’d have bowled them out for 200.”
Asked whether the attack went flat during the long stand, the 24-year-old shook his head. “We bowled him a few bouncers. Two chances were created off my bowling, including that catch we didn’t review and that chance that was dropped at square leg. We did attack, but when you attack, you concede runs as well. As for the field setting, that’s according to the situation.”
On balance, Pakistan will still fancy their chances. The surface looked noticeably truer than the one in Dhaka last week, where variable bounce dominated the opening Test. Even late in the day the ball was coming on to the bat, and the cracks that worried both teams in the capital were absent. Shahzad believes anything around 400 will hand Pakistan the initiative; given their top order struggled for runs in Dhaka, that remains a sizeable ask.
For Bangladesh, the equation is simpler. Another couple of quick wickets in the morning and the 278 could yet look plenty. They have Litton to thank for that, and as Shahzad admitted, the centurion was “extremely lucky”. A little fortune, and a little grit, have kept the series alive.
