Series preview: mountain to climb for Bangladesh
It’s hard to know what to write about a two test series where the result seems a foregone conclusion.
Bangladesh are slowly improving, but their experience is limited mostly to the dry roads of the sub-continent and the Caribbean. It’s hard to imagine them mustering much resistance in English early summer conditions.
However, learn they must and being thrashed repeatedly and regularly has been the experience of most Test nations during their early years at the highest level.
We are bound to hear plenty of calls for them to be relegated back to associate level from England’s insular cricket media, but we should not view this mini-series as a true indicator of their progress.
In addition to the unfamiliar surroundings, their best batsman Tamim Iqbal is struggling to overcome injury, and captain & star all-rounder Shakib-al-Hasan is recovering from chickenpox. Results in their warm up matches have been poor, with defeats to Essex and England Lions and a draw against Surrey. The way Surrey have been performing in the longer format this season, that match might as well have been a loss as well.
England meanwhile are taking the opportunity to rest Paul Collingwood and Stuart Broad before sterner opposition later this summer and into the winter.
Into the squad for the 1st Test come Eoin Morgan and Ajmal Shahzad. Neither has played a test yet, and there must be a strong temptation to have a look at them both at Lord’s. Jonathan Trott or Tim Bresnan could make way depending whether Strauss & Flower prefer 4 or, probably more likely, 5 bowlers.
Either way I would expect Morgan to play as England will want to give him a chance to stake a claim for an Ashes place. In a way though, both newcomers are on a hiding to nothing in this series – even if they put in match winning performances, there would be a reasonably strong argument for saying “it’s only Bangladesh” in the way that people downplayed Ravi Bopara’s run spree against West Indies a year ago. They were proven right then, and a repeat is perfectly possible.
The continued selection of Steve Finn is a good move. He impressed the England hierarchy in his two Tests in Bangladesh and has been in good form for Middlesex. I firmly believe that he will go to Australia barring a severe loss of form, rather than a return to an old pick like Steve Harmison.
Andrew Strauss has, bizarrely, been the subject of some speculation over his place in the ODI team as a result of his absence from England’s World Twenty20 victory. The two formats are completely different, and Strauss has been a good performer in ODIs for England during his captaincy. Why there should be any speculation is beyond me.
So it’s no surprise that I am predicting a comfortable 2-0 series win for England, at least one of those by an innings. It’s sad to say it but I can’t see Bangladesh presenting a challenge. The scheduling doesn’t help them, and they rely on two or three players to lead the rest. England should pick them off with ease.
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