Ian Chappell warns Aussies ahead of the Bangladesh series

Ahead of their upcoming tour to Bangladesh tour, the Australian team has been warned by Ian Chappell as the former player says that the series won’t be an easy task for them. This tour was under the radar for a bit of time till the pay dispute between Cricket Australia and Australian Cricketers’ Association came to an end in the first week of August. Over the last few years, Bangladesh have been the most improving side and have reached new highs in limited-overs cricket in this period.

Last year, they defeated England at home and levelled the 2-match series and registered their maiden Test win against the English side. Bangladesh last appearance in the longer format was in March where they took on Sri Lanka and made their 100th Test match a memorable one by defeating the home side and levelling the series.

Bangladesh’s recent progress

Given the improvement Bangladesh have shown recently, Ian Chappell feels the series between the two sides might end up being a close one.

“This will be a difficult tour. It’ll be hard and I don’t think they believe it will be anything but hard. Not so much because of the pay dispute, it’ll be hard because the conditions there are difficult and in the last 12-18 months Bangladesh have really improved,” quoted Ian Chappell.

Australia’s recent record in Asia has been a forgettable one for them as they have lost 11 of their last 13 Tests in Asia which includes 9 consecutive Test losses by which the Australians faced whitewashes in India, UAE (v Pakistan) and Sri Lanka. The upcoming series will be Australia’s first Test series in Bangladesh after 11 years as they last toured Bangladesh for Tests was in 2006 which they won by 2-0.

In fact, Australia have not toured Bangladesh for a bilateral series since 2011 as the scheduled tour in 2015 didn’t take off due to security issues raised by Australia. Their tour will begin with a 2-day practice at Fatullah from August 22 after which they will be playing at Dhaka and Chittagong in the Tests starting from 27th August and 4th September respectively.