All-rounder Mehedi Hasan Miraz said like the other teams, Bangladesh too take home advantage in order to keep ahead of the opposition.
The behavior of the pitch at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on day one of the second and final Test match between New Zealand and hosts Bangladesh raised questions as the spinners of the two sides bagged 13 out of the 15 wickets that fell on the day.
At stumps, New Zealand were down by five wickets with just 55 runs on the board in reply to Bangladesh's 172 all out.
Off-spinner Miraz took three wickets while Taijul Islam picked up two.
This was after the Bangladesh batters suffered at the hands of the New Zealand spinners.
“We didn’t have these expectations [from the pitch]. We expected to stick to the usual process of a Test, like the batters would have thought about playing out the first session. A lot happens according to the situation of the pitch,” said Miraz to the media at the post day press conference in Mirpur.
“We believed that we could make life difficult for them if we bowled in the right areas. We struggled against their spinners. We know these conditions pretty well, so that gave our bowlers the confidence that we could take more advantage from this pitch.
“Sylhet had a slow pitch with some help for batters at first, and then for spinners. We are habituated with the Mirpur wicket. Whenever we play abroad, those teams take home advantage. We try to take it in Test cricket. If we can get these points in the World Test Championship, we will be in a better position in the points table.”
Having won the first Test in Sylhet convincingly last week, Bangladesh are eyeing their maiden series win against the Kiwis in the longest format.
Bangladesh are also targeting to make 2023 their most successful year in Test cricket having already beaten Afghanistan, Ireland and New Zealand.
They also had three Test victories each in 2014 and 2018.
Miraz admitted despite the condition, Bangladesh have fallen short by about 40 runs and pressed on the need to bowl the opposition out to win the game.
“If we can’t bowl out our opponents, we won’t be able to win Tests. We won in similar pitches against England and Australia. We have good spinners who create opportunities in home conditions,” said Miraz.
“A better wicket will obviously be good for batters. They struggle on these wickets. But it is part of the planning of the team management. Since we are on top, we will definitely want to take these advantages. I think we scored 30-40 runs less than what we should have, on this wicket. A 200-plus total would have been ideal for us. We sometimes make 350 when it is a 400-wicket. We have to improve on this aspect. It will improve day by day,” he added.