Can Bangladesh pacers light up the morning?

Bangladesh will be optimistically looking toward Khaled Ahmed and Ebadot Hossain to utilise the little moisture in the early hours of the play on day three of the Dhaka Test at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium.

The Tigers were all-out for 365 runs in their first innings. In reply, Sri Lanka were 143-2 in 46 overs at the end of the second day’s play. They are trailing by 222 runs, but the wicket is offering very little help for the spinners.

Both Liton Das and Kasun Rajitha, who came in the post-match press conference, admitted that the evens of the morning session on day three would determine the fate of the Dhaka Test.

“Yet there is uneven bounce. I faced a few balls with uneven bounce when I was batting this morning. But I felt that the surface is little better than what we usually get in Mirpur,” Liton told the media.

Usually, left-arm spinners are successful in Mirpur, but Sri Lanka’s Praveen Jayawickrama was wicketless. Liton feels that the pacers should make in-roads for the spinners to take control of the game.

“I think our pacers have to do well in the morning. If not by taking by wickets, they must bowl economically so that we can put them under pressure and wait for their mistakes,” Liton told the media.

Rajitha said he had to work very hard for the wickets on this surface.

“Chattogram was a bit solid, but here in Mirpur, the surface is a bit soft. But it has got some movement for the pacers,” said Rajitha, who took his first five-wicket haul in this Test.

Nine wickets were shared among the pacers from Sri Lanka, Rajitha took five, and Ashitha Fernando took four. The other is a run-out. On the contrary, Bangladesh pacers are struggling to take wickets, and they are leaking runs. Ebadot removed Oshada Fernando on Tuesday, the first wicket for any Bangladesh pacer in the series.

On the other hand, Sri Lankan pacers managed seven wickets in Chattogram and already bagged nine in Dhaka.

Though Bangladesh is missing their frontline pacer, Taskin Ahmed, at the same time, the pacers lacked discipline in bowling as well.

Sri Lankan pacers did most of the damage during the first hour of the play both times, can Bangladesh pacers light up the morning on day three?