New Zealand Tour Bangladesh Tests November–December 2023: Series Drawn 1–1 — 1st Test Sylhet Bangladesh Win 150 Runs (Taijul Islam 10 Wickets, Shanto 105), 2nd Test Dhaka NZ Win 4 Wickets (Glenn Phillips 87, Ajaz Patel 6/57); Taijul Islam Player of Series 15 Wickets

New Zealand toured Bangladesh for a 2-Test series in November–December 2023, with the series ending in a 1–1 draw — Bangladesh winning the 1st Test convincingly and New Zealand levelling in a tightly contested 2nd Test. The series was part of the 2023–25 ICC World Test Championship cycle. 1st Test Sylhet Stadium (November 28 – December 2, 2023): Bangladesh won by 150 runs. Bangladesh batted first and posted 310 in their 1st innings, with captain Najmul Hossain Shanto anchoring the innings with 105 — a century that set the foundation for Bangladesh's total and demonstrated the batting quality available to the hosts in home conditions. New Zealand replied with 317 in the 1st innings, giving them a narrow 7-run lead — a competitive reply that suggested the match would be closely fought. Bangladesh's 2nd innings of 338 then set New Zealand a target of 332, a steep total on a Sylhet surface that was assisting Bangladesh's spinners. New Zealand's chase collapsed to 181 all out — losing by 150 runs — as Taijul Islam, Bangladesh's orthodox left-arm spinner, produced one of the great home Test bowling performances of the 2023 era: 6/75 in New Zealand's 2nd innings, following his 4/109 in the 1st innings, for a match haul of 10 wickets. Taijul was named Player of the Match. 2nd Test Dhaka/Mirpur (December 6–9, 2023): New Zealand won by 4 wickets to level the series. Bangladesh posted 172 and 144 in their two innings on a surface that aided New Zealand's spin options. Ajaz Patel — the New Zealand left-arm orthodox spinner who had previously taken all 10 wickets in an innings in India (2021) — claimed 6/57 in Bangladesh's 2nd innings to reduce them for 144. New Zealand's own batting was competitive but far from straightforward: requiring 137 for victory, they reached 139/6 — losing 6 wickets in the chase — before Glenn Phillips (40*) and Mitchell Santner steered them home in an unbeaten 7th-wicket stand of 70 runs, sealing the win and levelling the series. Phillips had been the batting catalyst in the match — scoring 87 in New Zealand's 1st innings — and also took 3/31 with his off-spin to contribute across both disciplines. Taijul Islam finished the series with 15 wickets across both Tests and was named Player of the Series; Shanto scored 166 runs as Bangladesh's leading run-scorer.

Taijul Islam: Bangladesh's Home Spinner at His Best

Taijul Islam's 10 wickets in the 1st Test at Sylhet — 4/109 in the 1st innings and 6/75 in the 2nd innings — illustrated why Bangladesh's slow left-arm spinner had been a consistent threat in home conditions for over a decade. Taijul had been Bangladesh's first-choice spinner in Tests since 2014, taking wickets in subcontinental conditions where left-arm orthodox spin with turn from the rough patches is particularly challenging for visiting batters. New Zealand, traditionally weaker against quality spin bowling in Asian conditions compared to their proficiency against pace at home in New Zealand, faced a Sylhet surface that provided the assistance Taijul needed to operate at full effectiveness. His 6/75 in the 2nd innings was the performance that turned the match — New Zealand, set 332 to win, were reduced to 181 all out despite their competitiveness in the 1st innings. The 10-wicket match haul gave Taijul his most significant single-match performance since his debut years and confirmed that Bangladesh's home advantage in Test cricket remained one of the most formidable in world cricket — particularly when the right spinners hit form on subcontinental surfaces. Taijul's 15-wicket series total (including his contribution in the Dhaka Test) made him the dominant bowling figure of the Bangladesh-New Zealand 2023 series.

New Zealand's Fight Back: Phillips and the Dhaka Chase

New Zealand's 4-wicket win in the 2nd Test at Dhaka was built on the complementary contributions of Glenn Phillips and Ajaz Patel. Ajaz Patel's 6/57 in Bangladesh's 2nd innings — reducing them to 144 — opened the door to a 137-run target that, while modest on paper, proved testing on a worn Dhaka surface where every wicket was hard-earned. Phillips, New Zealand's batting allrounder who had established himself as a match-winner across all formats by 2023, followed his 87 in New Zealand's 1st innings with the crucial unbeaten 40 in the chase — batting through the danger period when New Zealand lost wickets quickly from 69/1 to a vulnerable position. Mitchell Santner's partnership with Phillips — 70 runs unbeaten for the 7th wicket — was the match-defining stand. Santner, New Zealand's left-arm spin allrounder and an experienced campaigner in Asian conditions, provided the calm lower-order presence needed alongside Phillips. The win demonstrated that New Zealand — often strong tourists in the 2019–23 period but variable in Bangladesh — retained the competitive quality to level a Test series even when Bangladesh's spin attack was operating at full effectiveness. Ajaz Patel's 6/57 also underlined his value as a match-winning spinner when surfaces suited left-arm orthodox bowling — his 10-wicket 2021 Mumbai Test against India remained the benchmark, but the Dhaka performance confirmed his ability to deliver in Asian conditions.