 The first of the two Test matches between England and Bangladesh
will be played at Chittagong. The English side won all their three ODIs between
the two teams and though they were stretched to the hilt in the second ODI, they
will know that they will go into the Test matches as favourites to not only win
it, but do it convincingly.
The team news is not good for England though. They will be missing a couple
of their bowlers at least, as Ryan Sidebottom and Stuart Broad suffered
injuries during the ODIs. This has meant that Tim Bresnan has had to stay back,
while the other Test match specialists in Graham Onions make their way into
the side.
Click Here to Watch Bangladesh vs England LiveOf course, there are the other usual suspects; there is Ian Bell who acquitted
himself rather well on the tour of South Africa and now gets an easy outing
against Bangladesh to try and cement his place in the side. With Andrew Strauss
out of the team as well, Michael Carberry will get his opportunity as an opening
batsman, even as England try to juggle around with the new guys in Steve Davies, Steven Finn and Ajmal Shahzad. Shahzad, in fact, could be in line
for the Test debut as well, after picking up a wicket off his first over in
both, the T20I and ODI debuts.
This will also be a true test of courage for Alastair Cook, who will
be leading the English side, given that it will be his first time. Also, apart
from that, he will also be mindful of the fact that many of the experts have
been critical of the decision of ECB to have him skippering the side in place
of Andrew Strauss, and would be looking to win both the games.
The Bangladeshis need to take advantage of this inexperience in the captain,
and would need to bat really well. For starters, they will have to look to making
a big impression in the middle-order where they have faltered on a regular basis
in the past. It is not yet known whether Mohammad Ashraful will be selected
in the side, but one thing is for sure and that is that he will need to get
to a big hundred to be able to get out of the rut.
The bowling looked to be shaping well in the ODIs, and the spinners will try
and control the opposition batting - trying to throttle them into boredom and
in turn capture the wickets.
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