Third day's play called off due to rains

The third day of the Dhaka Test between Bangladesh and Pakistan has been called out without a ball bowled due to relentless rain on Monday.

At around 2:00 pm on Monday, the match referee called the day off. There were only 6.2 overs of cricket played on Sunday— the second day of the Test, and the first day was also affected by inclement weather.

The broadcast crew and journalists who came to cover the match at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium were seen to play indoor cricket with the tennis ball this afternoon, reports UNB.

There was an early tea break on day one as well. Due to the bad light on the ground, the match referee had to stop the match at that point in time. The match referee said the match would start half an hour earlier than the regular time in the remaining days.

Had the rain stopped, it would have taken at least an hour to make the field prepared to resume the game. Sher-e-Bangla has a modern drainage system in the country, still, it would not be possible to prepare the field in less than an hour if the rain stopped fully.

When the play paused for the last time, Pakistan were batting at 188 for two in 63.2 overs with both Azhar Ali (52), and Babar Azam (71) hitting a fifty each. For Bangladesh, left-arm spinner Taijul Islam bagged two wickets in the first session of the match on day one.

Earlier, Pakistan won the first match of the series in Chattogram by eight wickets despite some good displays from Liton Das, Mushfiqur Rahim and Taijul Islam. While Liton hit his maiden Test ton, Mushfiqur hit 91, and Taijul bagged seven wickets in an innings.

In contrast, Abid Ali, Shaheen Afridi and Hassan Ali have done well for the tourists to seal the match.

With this series, both Bangladesh and Pakistan have started the new cycle of the ICC World Test Championship. In the previous cycle, Bangladesh played seven matches and lost six of them with only a draw.

After this series, Bangladesh will fly to New Zealand to play a two-match Test series against the hosts starting from January 1 in Tauranga. The second Test of the series will be played from January 9 in Christchurch.

Bangladesh have already announced an 18-member squad for this series. The team will take the flight to New Zealand on December 9.