Big picture: Bangladesh start as favourites
Bangladesh have some major strugglers too. Tanzid is short of runs since the Test century in Darwin, while Litton Das has scored exactly two runs in his last five innings across international formats, including three ducks in as many Test innings in Australia. Mominul Haque and Shadman Islam are short of runs too.
Afghanistan LLWDL (last five completed matches, most recent first)
Bangladesh LWLWW
In the spotlight: Rahmat Shah and Najmul Hossain Shanto
Afghanistan will bank on the experience of Rahmat Shah, who replaced Shahidi as the Test and ODI captain after the Test defeat in India. Shah is a heavy scorer, and the only batter from Afghanistan to have scored 1000 Test runs and hit three centuries. He has provided middle-order stability for the last 13 years, a quality not always present in a side more known for explosive batting and canny spin-bowling.
Rahmat’s counterpart Najmul Hossain Shanto is at a different crossroads in his capacity as the Bangladesh captain. He has already established himself as the most successful Test captain in the country’s history, and now has the chance to shape the team’s future in a way that no Bangladesh captain ever got the chance to. Bangladesh have important WTC matches ahead, which means that Shanto cannot afford to take the foot off the gas against Afghanistan. A win in Abu Dhabi will place him in rarefied territory as it will be his tenth as the Test captain.
Team news: More wristspin for Afghanistan
Afghanistan (probable): 1 Sediqullah Atal, 2 Abdul Malik, 3 Rahmanullah Gurbaz, 4 Rahmat Shah (capt), 5 Hashmatullah Shahidi, 6 Shahidullah, 7 Afsar Zazai (wk), 8 Ismat Alam, 9 Qais Ahmed, 10 Ziaur Rahman/Mohammad Saleem, 11 Khalil Gurbaz.
Bangladesh (probable): 1 Tanzid Hasan, 2 Soumya Sarkar/Shadman Islam, 3 Mominul Haque, 4 Najmul Hossain Shanto (capt), 5 Mushfiqur Rahim, 6 Litton Das (wk), 7 Mehidy Hasan Miraz, 8 Nayeem Hasan, 9 Taijul Islam, 10 Hasan Mahmud, 11 Shoriful Islam.
Pitch and conditions
Five years ago, Sean Williams described the Abu Dhabi pitch as a “carpet on one side and a dustbowl on the other“. It has generally been slow, like when Afghanistan beat Bangladesh in the ODIs last year. The temperature could climb to nearly 40 degrees during the day.
“I am looking at the wicket and the wicket looks good. It looks like it can be a little bit slow but it looks to be a good wicket. So we are preparing for a good wicket and we know that we’re going to have to come up against a number of spinners and so we’re preparing for all that.”
Bangladesh coach Phil Simmons