Cricket Australia XI 51 for 2 trail Bangladesh 263 (Mehidy 109*, Rocchiccioli 6-83) by 212 runs
This is Bangladesh’s first Test tour of Australia in 23 years and their first bilateral visit for any format since 2008. They opted to bat after winning the toss and lost Tanzid Hasan for a duck in the third over. Rocchiccioli then got to work against a left-hander-heavy line-up – something that could interest Nathan Lyon during the Test series – by removing Shadman Islam, who drove to point, and having Mominul Haque edging to slip.
“It was actually a different wicket to what I was expecting,” Rocchiccioli said. “I’ve obviously played a lot of games up here, and a lot of the time, it’s not as tacky or as spinny early as it was today. So the fact that it was like that today was actually quite surprising.”
He also claimed the experienced Mushfiqur Rahim, slog-sweeping to midwicket, and worked his way through the lower order as Bangladesh stumbled to 194 for 9. However, Khaled Ahmed helped support Mehidy in a tenth-wicket stand of 69 in 12.1 overs and Mehidy reached his hundred with a boundary off Jerrssis Wadia.
“I love playing subcontinent teams, their ability to play spin [is] second to none,” Rocchiccioli said. “So I always knew there was going to be a fight on my hands. You always know with first-class cricket … that no one’s just going to fall to their knees and surrender. So I knew what was going to happen at the back end, and I thought they stuck their guns really well. That was a pretty cool hundred to watch.”
Captain Najmul Hossain Shanto had earlier provided some resistance with 37, which included seven boundaries, before edging quick Campbell Thompson into the slips.
Bangladesh suffered a significant blow heading into the series when fast bowler Nahid Rana was ruled out with a side strain but were boosted by the recovery of Litton Das from a calf injury.
The first Test starts on August 13 followed by the second in Mackay from August 22.
