“Right now, we can’t say who has the upper hand in this Test,” Agha said. “Tomorrow is going to be an exciting day of Test cricket. We just want to get them out as quickly as we can, that’s what our strategy is going to be. If they really give us 260 to chase in 70 overs, we will definitely go for the chase. But I don’t think they will do that.

“If they want to score 100 runs in 20 overs tomorrow, that’s brilliant – but it is going to be very risky. Personally I want them to give us 60-70 overs to chase 260-odd runs. Somehow I think they won’t [do that]. I think their first priority will be to take us out of the game, and then do whatever they need to do.”

Ashraful said that Bangladesh’s team management hasn’t settled on the target they want to set for Pakistan, and he backed his bowlers to seal the win on the final day.

“We want to win this Test match,” Ashraful said. “If we can bowl 70 or 75 overs, we can bowl them out. We haven’t decided when we will declare the innings, but I think there is still enough time for us to win the game.”

Ashraful also warned his batters against complacency. “We have to continue batting well tomorrow,” he said. “It is a wicket that demands you to bat properly. You must have seen how teams have been hurt by an ordinary third innings ever after scoring 400-500 runs, especially in the last four or five years of Test cricket.

“Mominul and Shanto batted really well during their century partnership. Mushfiq [Mushfiqur Rahim] was also putting away the bad balls. I think we are sticking to a simple plan.”

Mominul and Shanto had to tackle a rampant Pakistan pace attack that removed both Bangladesh openers Shadman Islam and Mahmudul Hasan Joy cheaply, for the second time in the match. They were pumped, with Mohammad Abbas sledging Mominul multiple times.

Ashraful offered his support to both Joy and Shadman. “I am not worried about the openers,” Ashraful said. “We had three big opening stands in the last Test series [against Ireland]. I think Joy scored something like 235-265 runs. He had a career-best 171 against Ireland. Shadman scored around 190 runs.

“I understand that they didn’t get runs in both innings in this game. We were put into bat; it wasn’t easy to survive against the new ball. We didn’t bat according to our expectations. Our experienced batters recovered very well. We are hopeful that both our openers will return to form in the next match.”