Sports Reporter :
Bangladesh will take on England in the 1st Test match, which begins today at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong. The match starts at 10.00 am. Private satellite channel GTV will telecast the match live from the venue everyday. Earlier, Bangladesh faced England in eight Test matches. Of them, England won all the eight occasions. But, Bangladesh are now stronger than that of earlier days.
Before the 1st Test, Captain of Bangladesh Test team Mushfiqur Rahim said, ” The coin-session is very important. It will be good for us to bat first after winning the toss. If one of the batsman of top four can play a big innings and we score above three hundred, it will be a plus point for us.”
Mushfiqur said, ” Now five-six players of our team used to play in three formats. So, we can say that all of us are now in a good form.”
He said, ” Imrul, Shakib, Tamim, Mahmudullah, Mominul are now in good form. I am expecting spectacular performance from them. I hope, they will perform well”
Captain of England Test team Alastair Cook said, “I want a sporting wicket. I want that the wicket will favour the batsmen. We played the last Test match here in the year of 2010. In that time, the wicket acted in favour of batsmen. There are a good number of spinners in Bangladesh squad. The wicket may turn in the fourth and fifth day. In the sub-continent, the first three days, the pitch is batting paradise. But, in fourth and fifth day the wicket becomes turning.”
Cook said, ” In the last couple of years, Bangladesh have improved their performance a lot. There are a lot of talented players in Bangladesh team. They are now a good rhythm. Hoping that the match will be attractive.”
Teams:
Bangladesh (probable) : Tamim Iqbal, Imrul Kayes, Mominul Haque, Mahmudullah Riyad, Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim (Captain & Wicketkeeper), Sabbir Rahman, Mehedi Hasan, Shafiul Islam, Taijul Islam and Kamrul Islam Rabbi.
England (probable): Alastair Cook (Captain), Haseeb Hameed, Joe Root, Ben Duckett, Ben Stokes, Jonny Bairstow (Wicketkeeper), Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, Adil Rashid, Gareth Batty and Stuart Broad.
