LONDON, (Reuters) – England indulged in an extended practice session at the expense of a willing but inadequate Bangladesh attack on the first day of the opening test of the English summer yesterday.
Shakib Al Hassan’s decision to ask the home side to bat was ostensibly based on the assistance his pace bowlers would draw from the heavy cloud cover and a sprinkling of overnight rain.
It was also probably influenced by fears that his fragile batting lineup would be cruelly exposed by the England pace attack.
In the end, Bangladesh bowled badly and England reached 362 for four with Jonathan Trott batting most of the day for 175 not out.
“We didn’t put enough balls in the right spot,” Bangladesh coach Jamie Siddons told a news conference. “We bowled eight maidens which is not nearly good enough in test cricket. “The ball didn’t swing as much as we thought it would, the sun coming out didn’t help us at all and the ball didn’t swing after that.”
Before the current two-test series, Bangladesh’s wickets in overseas tests had cost a prohibitive 66.81 runs each and on the evidence of yesterday’s performance the average is not likely to fall any time soon.
Trott and debutant Eoin Morgan had the most to prove among the England batsmen with the former enduring a disappointing tour of South Africa and Bangladesh after scoring a century on debut against Australia last year.
After getting off the mark with a boundary from his third ball, Trott’s first 50 runs took 75 balls, his second 58 and his third 110 with only two boundaries.
Captain Andrew Strauss had called for longer innings from his specialist batsmen and Trott’s response indicated he had absorbed the message.
He also knows that he and Morgan will probably be competing for one place when Paul Collingwood returns to the side once his injured shoulder has fully recovered.
Morgan was not out 40 at the close, scoring his first boundary with the reverse sweep he uses to such effect in one-day cricket.
“We lost a couple of wickets and I didn’t want two new batters and I wanted to be there for the new ball,” Trott said.
Strauss marked his return to the England team after missing the series in Bangladesh with 83 but there was disappointment for Kevin Pietersen and Ian Bell who were bowled for 18 and 17 respectively.
Bell had previously averaged an astronomical 244 against Bangladesh while Pietersen’s average was 83.33, a further indication of the frailties in the visitors’ attack.
Today England bowlers should get their chance in what will also effectively be a dress rehearsal for the tougher tests ahead. They have four matches against Pakistan followed by the Ashes defence in Australia and the 50-overs World Cup on the Indian sub-continent.
In the absence of Stuart Broad, who is undergoing conditioning training, the spotlight will be on tall young Middlesex fast bowler Steven Finn to show he has the stamina to match his pace in the test arena.
