Bangladesh vs Zimbabwe: Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium Pitch Report for 1st T20I

With less than a month left in arguably the biggest T20I spectacle of the calendar year, Bangladesh gear up to give a finishing touch to their T20 World Cup preparations as they meet Zimbabwe in the first game of the five-match T20I series at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram on Friday, May 3.

While the Bangla Tigers enjoy the wood over Zimbabwe in the shortest format of the game with 13 wins in 20 games, Zimbabwe won (2-1) the last bilateral contest that was played between the two countries at home in 2022.

The Chevrons are yet to register a series win in either of the white-ball formats in Bangladesh since 2001. The team led by Sikandar Raza has therefore arrived in the country intending to rewrite history.

While Zimbabwe are stacked with their full-strength squad, Bangladesh, on the other hand, are without two of their star players - former captain Shakib Al Hasan and Mustafizur Rahman.

Mustafizur was rendering his services for the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the IPL season 17 and would only be able to join the squad for the last two T20Is if he passes the fitness test.

Meanwhile, Shakib has recently returned from the USA and hence was not rushed into the series when the selectors assembled to pick the squad for the first three games.

As per ESPNcricinfo, Shakib will play a fixture in the ongoing Dhaka Premier League (DPL) before he becomes available for the last two games of the series.

Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium Pitch Report

Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium has not been a high-scoring venue historically as spinners tend to dictate terms to the batters. The average first innings score at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury in T20Is is 145 which reduces further to 123 in the second innings.