Bangladesh won the second Test by 78 runs to beat Pakistan 2-0 for the second successive series
Taijul Islam finished with six wickets as Bangladesh dismissed Pakistan for 358 to complete a 78-run win in the second Test in Sylhet and sweep their two-match series.
The left-arm spinner took two of the three wickets to fall on the final day and returned figures of 6-120 from 34.2 overs to help clinch the series.
Bangladesh won the first Test by 104 runs last week.
The victory marked Bangladesh’s second successive series sweep against Pakistan, having previously completed a 2-0 victory in 2024.
It takes the Tigers to fifth in the World Test Championship standings, one spot above India, with two victories, a draw and a loss so far in the 2025-27 cycle.
But their next Test assignment will be their toughest yet when they travel to Darwin and Mackay in August to face top ranked Australia.
“(Our) fast bowlers did a great job in these hot conditions on a flat track; that is one thing we always wanted to improve,” Bangladesh captain Najmul Hossain Shanto said post-match.
“In the batting also, sometimes we lost too many wickets early on, but nowadays we have some brilliant partnerships, and our tailenders now contribute a lot.
“We tried to build our team because if you look at world cricket, we needed to change something; we tried and we hope to continue the way we have played.
“The last cycle we played some good cricket but this year we have the challenge of going to Australia, so we want to compete in that series as well.
“The way we have been playing, especially our fast bowlers and our spinners, if we continue to play good cricket, I think we will play well over there.”
Bangladesh and Australia will also face off in three ODIs and three T20 internationals in Dhaka and Chattogram respectively next month.
Pakistan were 7-316 on day four and added 42 runs on the fifth morning before losing the remaining wickets as Bangladesh rushed to victory.
The end of Muhammad Rizwan’s defiant, 166-ball innings signalled the end of the tourist’s hopes of chasing down an improbable victory target of 437.
Rizwan (94) struck Nahid Rana (2-71) for consecutive boundaries in the third over of the day to make Pakistan’s intention clear. Sajid Khan also scored freely to maintain pressure on the hosts’ bowlers.
But Taijul’s breakthrough, dismissing Sajid for 28, ended a 54-run partnership and marked his 18th five-wicket haul in Test matches, which hastened the result.
In the next over, Rizwan cut a Shoriful Islam delivery straight to gully before Taijul wrapped up the Pakistan innings in the subsequent over by removing Khurram Shahzad for a duck.
Bangladesh wicketkeeper-batter Litton Das was named player of the match for his first innings century, which he backed up with 69 runs in the second.
Veteran batter Mushfiqur Rahim, who turned 39 this month, was player of the series for his 253 runs, which included a national record 14th Test ton in the second innings.
