Bangladesh welcome Pakistan to Mirpur on Friday, and, like it or not, everyone keeps bringing up Rawalpindi 2024 – the series when Bangladesh stunned Pakistan 2-0. Head coach Phil Simmons would rather people didn’t.
“[The 2024 series] is history now. We want to make new history. It doesn’t matter what happened then,” he said after training. The players have heard the same line all week. Simmons accepts the memory is useful – “it gives you a boost” – but only up to a point. The noise, in his view, mainly comes from outside. “I think 90-95% expectations are from outside the dressing room. The media and the public have more expectations than we do.”
Shaheen Shah Afridi, back in Bangladesh for the first time since that rough tour, is also treating 2024 like an old postcard. “Personally, the past is in the past, and I do not want to dwell on it,” he said. Afridi managed only two wickets in the opening Test two years ago and was dropped, so the reluctance is understandable. Still, there is a bigger target now. “Our goal is to focus on the present and the future. We are preparing ourselves to win the Championship, not just a single series; our collective goal is much larger. We have to play our best cricket.”
Both sides have tweaked personnel. Simmons took the Bangladesh job a couple of months after that famous triumph and has spent most of this build-up with players who barely touch white-ball cricket any more – Mushfiqur Rahim, Mominul Haque, Taijul Islam. “It is a more mental shift,” he noted, “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.” Preparation, in other words, shouldn’t be the excuse.
Pakistan’s seam attack looks heavier this time, partly because Mohammad Abbas and Khurram Shahzad are coming straight from early-season county cricket. Afridi thinks a green Mirpur surface – not unheard-of in May – could help them grab 20 wickets. “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.”
Where does all this leave the World Test Championship table? Pakistan currently sit fifth after a split series against South Africa, while Bangladesh – with more matches played – are just ahead. Afridi is open about the numbers. “If you look at [our performance], we are not satisfied as a team,” he said. “We played well in the last Test series [against South Africa], but we should have won that series 2-0… 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.”
Simmons, typically, is looking at the next ball rather than points permutations. He referred to that January camp in Chattogram, hours spent on simple disciplines, and the way senior players drove standards. “We prepare and look forward to playing; the expectations from the last series do not help us,” he repeated, almost under his breath, mindful that one bad hour can shred a narrative.
Yet he also knows supporters still talk about 2024 in the bazaars and tea stalls. That was only the second time Bangladesh had taken a series off Pakistan, and it came away from home. Lose this week and the achievement remains; win again and the story gets a sequel. That, perhaps, is what Simmons means by “new history”: respect for the old chapter, space for a fresh one.
First ball, Mirpur, Friday morning – and then we can all stop talking about Rawalpindi.
