Bangladesh flew into Mackay on a two-stop journey, took an extra day off before they went anywhere near a net, and reported to the Great Barrier Reef Arena on Wednesday as the talk of the cricket world. Their head coach, Phil Simmons, used the session – three hours long, every fast bowler running in hard – to tell them that being the story is not the same as being safe, and that the Australia v Bangladesh second Test will demand more of them, not less.
The match begins in Mackay on Saturday with the tourists 1-0 up, having beaten Australia by nine wickets in Darwin. Simmons is not treating that as a platform so much as a warning. Australia, he expects, will be a different proposition entirely, and his side will have to be better than they were in the win to stay ahead of them.
‘They are going to change their game’
“The only thing I had to say to them – and I will repeat it anyway – is that Australia is going to come harder,” Simmons said on Thursday, in comments reported by ESPNcricinfo. “So we have to either keep that level of performance or get a little bit better. Even if we [have to] get 1% better in some areas, then we will have to make sure that that’s there. But we know that they are going to change their game. They are going to come harder at us.”
In a video posted on Bangladesh’s social channels after Darwin, Simmons drew on his own playing experience in Australia to underline the scale of what his players had done – before adding the line that has framed the week: “We came to play two Tests, not one.” He has since described the result as the best he has had as a coach in Test cricket. Shoriful Islam, the left-arm quick, came through the Mackay session and is in selection contention.
Australia v Bangladesh Second Test: The Axe Falls On Weatherald
Australia’s answer has been to change the shape of their innings before a ball is bowled. Jake Weatherald has been dropped after scores of 0 and 23 in Darwin left him averaging 20.36 from six Tests, and Matt Renshaw is set to open with Travis Head on Saturday, ESPNcricinfo reported. We covered the decision when it landed: Australia’s reaction to the Darwin defeat was swift, and it was aimed squarely at the top order.
There is a county footnote in it for British readers. Weatherald, 31, has signed to play the early stages of Warwickshire’s 2027 County Championship season, having made 483 runs at 60.37 in nine innings for Leicestershire earlier this year. “Edgbaston is one of the great grounds in world cricket,” he said in a club statement reported by ESPNcricinfo. An Australian opener at Edgbaston in the spring before an Ashes summer is the sort of arrangement that reliably starts an argument in England.
How far Bangladesh have travelled
What makes Darwin so hard to file is the run that preceded it. Bangladesh came to Australia having lost to Zimbabwe by an innings, then were bowled out for 54 by a Cricket Australia XI in their warm-up fixture. Simmons insists nothing changed between those results and the Test.
“I’ve seen the practices, I’ve seen how we practiced before the three-day game, and I’ve seen how we practiced the three days before the Test match,” he said. “So the work didn’t change. Even though we made 54, an off day, the work rate didn’t change.” That is the kind of continuity most coaches claim and very few get to prove.
Mackay will establish which version was the outlier. Australia must win to level a two-match series against a side England are due to meet in Test cricket before the next Ashes – a fixture that looked routine a fortnight ago and does not now. Simmons has already told his players what is coming at them. Whether they can hold their level when it arrives is the only question left.
