Bangladesh suffers heavy warm-up loss ahead of Australia Test series

Bangladesh's preparation for their two-Test series against Australia has been severely impacted by a heavy defeat in their final warm-up match. Playing against a Cricket Australia XI in Darwin, Bangladesh was defeated by an innings and 38 runs.

In their second innings, the visitors collapsed for just 54 runs, with Tanzid Hasan top-scoring with 22. The collapse was led by 22-year-old left-arm pacer Campbell Thompson, who delivered a standout performance, claiming 8 wickets for 25 runs. This follows a first innings where Bangladesh had scored 263, highlighted by an unbeaten 109 from Mehidy Hasan Miraz.

Bangladesh head coach Phil Simmons expressed disappointment regarding the team's batting discipline, stating, “I think we let ourselves down with the bat in this practice match, and you look at how we got out, and it wasn’t nice.” Despite the setback, Simmons remains optimistic about the team's ability to work on their performance in the days leading up to the Test matches.

The two-Test series against a full-strength Australian side, including bowlers like Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, and Josh Hazlewood, is scheduled to begin on August 13 in Darwin.