The tour, during March, 1986, was in preparation for Bangladesh's participation in the 2nd Asia Cup, later that month. Also, this tour can be considered as a follow up of the tour of a Pak side (officially called the Omar Quareshi XI), led by Imran Khan, during early January.Out of the 6 matches played, the tourists won 2, and lost the remaining 4.
Contents
The tour
This can be described as the 1st major tour of a test playing nation by Bangladesh. Bangladesh had toured England in the summers of 1979 & 1982, but played against the Associate countries and club teams from England. The tour of West Bengal, in Dec. 1983, didn't cover other parts of India. In contrast, here, the tourists played against oppositions from different parts of Pakistan. Although, they didn't meet the official Pak team (which was away on a tour of Sri Lanka), the teams opposing them were strong. The teams included players like veteran Iqbal Qasim (captiain of Rawalpindi side), and youngsters like Ijaz Faqih, Saleem Jaffar, Anil Dalpat, Asif Mujtaba, Aamer Malik, Aamer Sohail, Naved Anjum, Akram Raza, Wasim Haider, Zahoor Elahi, Manzoor Elahi, & others. Among the teams, Rawalpindi looked the strongest on paper, but the Bangladesh side put up a spirited fight against them before losing by 3 wickets. There were some really close matches, but Zone B achieved the most convincing victory with the Elahi brothers, (Zahoor and Manjoor) dominating.
The Bangladesh performance
The real sensation form the tourists point of view was the batting of young Nurul Abedin Nobel. He scored a brilliant hundred (102) against Zone A. He shared a 135 run 2nd wicket partnership with his captain. Nobel's century was only the 3rd by a Bangladeshi batsman,after Tousuf Babu's (115) against PNG in 1982 ICC Trophy, & Rafiqul Alam's 129 for Bangladesh Tigers against Singapore in South East Asian Cup in 1984. Nobel also scored 50, against a stronger Zone C side, sharing a 112 run opening stand with the veteran Raqibul Hasan. Unfortunately, the middle order failed to capitalize on this great start. Skipper Gazi Ashraf came good in the final match. Minhajul Abedin Nannu was consistent, but failed to convert starts into scores.
The seam bowlers did a good job for the tourists. Their main strike bowler Gholam Nousher Prince, however, failed to impress. In contrast, young Golam Faruq Suru and Tanjib Ahsan Saad performed better. Skipper Gazi Ashraf did an admirable job as a part-time spinner, but the absence of a genuinely match winning spinner was badly felt in the close finishes. Either Anwarul Amin Azhar or Wahidul Gani would have been useful in the slow turning tracks.
In the game against the Lahore Cricket Association, all the 10 batsman of the Lahore team were out caught. WK Hafizur Rahman Sani alone took 6 catches.