Bangladesh won what could be an important toss and made excellent use of the new ball in favourable conditions to take out three early wickets, but half-centuries from Saim Ayub and Saud Shakeel ensured Pakistan ended a truncated first day on an even keel.

The fourth-wicket pair put on an enterprising 98 to rescue Pakistan from 16 for 3, and when bad light brought play to a close, the home side were breathing a lot better at 158 for 4. Ayub, playing just his second Test, rode out a difficult early period against the new ball before blossoming to score his maiden half-century. Shakeel, promoted to vice-captaincy, continued his impressive rise in the Pakistan cap by becoming their joint-quickest batter to 1000 Test runs, getting there in his 20th innings to match Saeed Ahmed, who got there in 1959.

Both Ayub and, in particular, Shakeel, brought a proactive approach to handling Bangladesh’s seamers, often shuffling out of their crease to disturb their lengths and narrow the extent of movement they were able to generate.

By stumps, Bangladesh had broken the partnership between the two left-handers, with Hassan Mahmud coaxing Ayub to drive at a ball angled across him that wasn’t quite full enough for the shot. It was his second wicket and similar in conception to his first: relentless good lengths forcing the batter into a risk against a rare, seemingly driveable ball.

This was Bangladesh’s only success of a 20-over post-tea session, as Shakeel and Mohammad Rizwan steered Pakistan to stumps with an unbroken partnership of 44 for the fifth wicket.

With their partnerships, Ayub, Shakeel and Rizwan may have exposed one structural shortcoming in Bangladesh’s attack. Unlike Pakistan, who went into this Test match with four frontline seamers, Bangladesh picked three seamers and two spin-bowling allrounders.

The offspinner Mehidy Hasan Miraz, introduced at the start of the 14th over with two left-handers at the crease, bore the brunt of a calculated counterattack, conceding 24 in four overs. He didn’t bowl badly, but with no real help for the spinners this early in the contest, Ayub and Shakeel went after him, using their full reach to sweep him clinically off a good length.

It took until the 39th over for Bangladesh to call on their second spinner, and Pakistan were just as ruthless against Shakib Al Hasan, with Rizwan sweeping him for back-to-back fours in his first over. Together, the two spinners conceded 36 in six overs.

The express quick Nahid Rana, picked ahead of the more experienced Khaled Ahmed, was expensive too; on a pitch that rewarded old-fashioned line and length, Bangladesh used him as an enforcer, and it didn’t quite come off on the day, as he went for 48 in 10 overs.

The other two quicks, however, enjoyed a productive day, particularly with the new ball.Shoriful Islam and Mahmud hammered away on a good length in conditions where the ball swung, seamed and occasionally lifted off damp areas on the pitch. Both beat the bat regularly in the early overs, and Bangladesh didn’t have to wait long before the breakthrough came.

It came via a wide outswinger from Mahmud, not quite a half-volley, that Abdullah Shafique chased after being kept to just two runs off his first 13 balls. His drive turned into an aerial slice, and Zakir Hasan grabbed it spectacularly, throwing himself full-length to his right at gully.

The left-armer Shoriful tested both Ayub and Pakistan captain Shan Masood with his line in the fifth-stump channel, mostly swinging the ball away from the left-handers but getting the odd one to nip in off the pitch. One of these nip-backers sent back Masood, though in contentious circumstances. Masood pushed forward to defend – bat and pad fairly close together – and the ball kissed one or both on its way to keeper Litton Das, who appealed vociferously for caught-behind. Though he wasn’t given out on the field, Bangladesh had their man ruled out on review, with TV umpire Michael Gough ruling that a spike on Ultra-Edge was evidence of ball on bat, though there seemed to be a chance that it had missed the inside edge and brushed the flap of the pad instead.

Having had that bit of fortune going their way, Bangladesh had another soon after, when Babar Azam fell for a duck to an innocuous delivery, tickling an off-target inswinger from Shoriful down the leg side, into the left glove of an acrobatically diving Litton.

Brief scores: [Stumps]
Pakistan 158 for 4 in 41 overs (Saud Shakeel 57*, Saim Ayub 56, Mohamed Rizwan 24*; Shoriful Islam 2-30, Hasan Mahmud 2-33) vs Bangladesh

[Cricinfo]