Australia vs Bangladesh 2026 Test Series: Tips, Odds & Preview

The series finished 1-1. Australia won the second Test at Mackay by an innings and 51 runs inside two days, Mitchell Starc taking 10-51, after Bangladesh had won their first ever Test in Australia in Darwin. Full results and how our bets landed.

Australia host Bangladesh for a two-match Test series in August 2026, with Darwin staging its first Test in over two decades and Mackay hosting its maiden five-day fixture. Both matches count towards the ICC World Test Championship, giving the home side valuable points on offer as they open a busy home summer. Below we preview both Tests, the key betting angles and our predictions. For the full season calendar see our international cricket hub, and for more formats visit the main cricket betting page.

The two sides met earlier in 2026 during Australia’s white-ball tour of Bangladesh, covered in our Australia vs Bangladesh T20I series tips. This red-ball series reverses the venue, with Bangladesh now facing Australian conditions for the first time in a generation. Australia are overwhelming favourites at home, but there is still plenty for punters to work with across match, series and player markets.

Australia vs Bangladesh, First Test: Darwin (13 to 17 August)

The series opened at Marrara Stadium in Darwin on Thursday 13 August, the city’s first Test match since 2004. The weather held, as August in the Darwin dry season usually does, so there was no hiding behind the conditions. The surface did what was expected of it in one respect and not at all in another: there was enough in it for the seamers throughout, and by the second innings the wear was bringing spin into the game. Both of those went Bangladesh’s way.

Australia entered as prohibitive favourites, on the basis of their pace depth and a settled top order against a side whose record in Australia was limited and dated. Half of that held up: Josh Hazlewood took 6-89 and the Australian attack was not the problem. The batting was, twice, and the task everyone assumed would beat Bangladesh, batting long enough to build first-innings pressure, was the one they completed and Australia did not. Bangladesh made 426 and led by 228.

Result: Bangladesh won by nine wickets. Bangladesh 426 (Tanzid Hasan 101, Shanto 84, Mehidy Hasan Miraz 65; Hazlewood 6-89) and 57/1 beat Australia 198 (Smith 71; Hasan Mahmud 6-55, Ebadot 2-39) and 284 (Green 104, Smith 44; Mehidy 5-66, Mahmud 3-56), the match finishing on day four on Sunday 16 August. It is Bangladesh’s first Test win in Australia, at the third attempt and on their first visit here in 23 years, and it makes them only the third Asian side to win a Test in this country. Our pre-match call was Australia to win comfortably. It was wrong, and not narrowly.

Hasan Mahmud finished with nine wickets for 111 across the match, his 6-55 on day one a career-best and his 3-56 in the second innings the return that finished Australia off. Tanzid Hasan made a maiden century in reply, Shanto 84 and Mehidy Hasan Miraz 65 took Bangladesh to 426, and a first-innings lead of 228 was always going to be decisive on a surface offering that much to the seamers.

Australia’s resistance came from Cameron Green, whose 104 was his maiden Test century at home, ended when Mahmud had him playing onto his stumps. Steve Smith made 71 and 44 and was the only other batter to pass fifty in the match. Mehidy’s 5-66, the fifteenth five-wicket haul of his Test career, did the rest, and Mominul Haque cut Beau Webster to the fence to knock off a target of 57. Josh Hazlewood’s 6-89 in Bangladesh’s first innings was the one Australian effort that stood up.

What it changes. Everything. A 2-0 Australian sweep is off the board, the best result available to the home side is now 1-1, and Bangladesh go to Mackay needing only to avoid defeat to win a Test series in Australia for the first time. It also puts a dent in Australia’s World Test Championship ledger at the start of a home summer they expected to bank points in. The Second Test at Mackay (22 to 26 August) has gone from a formality to the most interesting Test of the Australian year.

First Test result: Bangladesh won by nine wickets

Our call was Australia to win, comfortably, inside the distance. Bangladesh bowled them out for 198 on day one and were never headed. The lesson worth carrying into the second Test is the one the market got wrong too: Bangladesh’s seam attack in northern-Australian conditions was treated as a formality, and a top order short of red-ball miles was assumed to be the only fragile one on the ground.

Australia vs Bangladesh, Second Test: Mackay (22 to 26 August)

The series ended at the Great Barrier Reef Arena in Mackay, the venue’s first Test match, and it did not need five days. It did not need three. The uncertainty about how an unused Test surface would play was answered emphatically on day one, when 18 wickets fell.

Result: Australia won by an innings and 51 runs. Australia 210 (Green 51, Smith 42; Shoriful Islam 6-35) beat Bangladesh 64 (Starc 6-12, Cummins 3-25) and 95 (Starc 4-39) inside two days on 22 and 23 August. Mitchell Starc finished with 10-51 for the match, the fourth ten-wicket haul of his Test career, and Nathan Lyon took the last two shortly after tea. The series is drawn 1-1.

Two records tell you how strange the match was. Bangladesh were bowled out for under 100 in both innings of a Test for the first time in their history, and Australia’s 210 is the fourth-lowest total ever to win a Test by an innings. Australia were themselves 165 for 8 at one point on day one and had surrendered a commanding position, which in any normal match would have mattered. Against 64 and 95 it did not.

So the tour splits: Bangladesh’s first Test win in Australia in Darwin, then the heaviest kind of correction in Mackay. Both sides leave with something, and Australia leave with the World Test Championship points they expected to bank a fortnight ago.

Second Test result: Australia won by an innings and 51 runs

We took Australia to win at Mackay and level the series, on the basis that a stung Australian team with a series to save is a different proposition to one that turned up in Darwin expecting a warm-up. That is precisely what happened, and then some.

The value play we flagged alongside it, Bangladesh to win the series on the basis that a draw would do the job, was beaten inside two days. The reasoning was that an unused surface plus an attack that had just taken 20 cheap wickets made a draw live. The surface did behave exactly as expected and it was Bangladesh’s batting, not Australia’s, that could not survive it. Our same game multi guide explains how to combine several Test markets into a single bet.

Australia vs Bangladesh series prediction and betting angles

Final: the series finished 1-1. Our two-Test scorecard: the Darwin call (Australia to win) lost, the Mackay call (Australia to win and level) landed, and the series play (Bangladesh, needing only a draw) was beaten. One from two on the Tests, and the series bet gone in two days.

The series wicket-takers tell the story better than the result does. Mitchell Starc took 10-51 in a single match at Mackay; Hasan Mahmud took 9-111 in Darwin and Mehidy Hasan Miraz 5-66; Shoriful Islam took 6-35 in Mackay. Four bowlers with a match-defining return across two Tests, and only one of them Australian. On surfaces like these, top series wicket-taker was never the home-side formality the pre-series market treated it as.

The series is complete and both results are recorded above. Our next red-ball coverage of these sides is the Australia v South Africa tour later in the summer.

Australia vs Bangladesh 2026 Test series schedule

Test	Venue	Dates (AEST)	Result
First Test	Marrara Stadium, Darwin	13 to 16 August 2026	Bangladesh won by 9 wickets
Second Test	Great Barrier Reef Arena, Mackay	22 to 26 August 2026	Australia won by an innings and 51 runs

 

How to bet on the Australia vs Bangladesh Test series

The main markets for a Test series are match result, series winner, winning margin, and top batter and bowler for each side. The pre-series read was that the gulf in class made this a question of how big rather than who, and Bangladesh winning in Darwin is the standing reminder that a two-Test series in northern Australia in August does not price like a home banker. If you are new to the format, our guide on how to bet on cricket walks through every market, and you can compare the leading cricket betting sites in Australia before you place a bet.

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