Toss Afghanistan chose to bat v Bangladesh
In his first Test as Afghanistan captain, Rashid Khan chose to bat against Bangladesh in Chattogram. The visitors handed Test debuts to Qais Ahmed, Zahir Khan and Ibrahim Zadran, apart from picking their core group of senior cricketers.
Qais and Zahir are spinners, while Zadran is a top-order batsman who impressed during Afghanistan A’s tour of Bangladesh in July. The wicket-keeping duties moved from Ikram Alikhil to Afsar Zazai.
The home side went with an all-spin attack, as expected, which meant the three pace bowlers were left out. They also opted for eight batsmen, as they had done against West Indies in their previous home Test. Mosaddek Hossain returned for his first Test since January 2018, and his offspin made him a sixth spin-bowling option.
Bangladesh: 1 Soumya Sarkar, 2 Shadman Islam, 3 Mominul Haque, 4 Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), 5 Shakib Al Hasan (capt), 6 Mahmudullah, 7 Liton Das, 8 Mosaddek Hossain, 9 Mehidy Hasan, 10 Taijul Islam, 11 Nayeem Hasan
Afghanistan: 1 Ihsanullah, 2 Ibrahim Zadran, 3 Rahmat Shah, 4 Hashmatullah Shahidi, 5 Asghar Afghan, 6 Mohammad Nabi, 7 Afsar Zazai (wk), 8 Rashid Khan (capt), 9 Yamin Ahmadzai, 10 Qais Ahmed, 11 Zahir Khan