Yesterday was the first time since the New Zealand team arrived in Chittagong that the sun came out. The Kiwis are scheduled to lock horns with Bangladesh in the first Test at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium (ZACS) starting October 9 but continuous rain and waterlogged fields have denied both teams from practice opportunities – including a three-day warm up game. Nonetheless, the sun shining bright came as a relief to the visitors.
The visitors were allowed onto the ZACS field for the first time and with couple of days to go before the Test, they were glad to have a chance to assess the conditions.
“Yes, didn’t expect to wake up and see the sun this morning to be honest. But it’s nice to get out outdoors and face some bowlers on grass,” New Zealand middle-order batsman Ross Taylor told the media at the ZACS yesterday.
Though frustrating, Taylor was philosophically accepting about the warm up match being rained off. “It is what it is, you can’t control the weather. The guys have prepared well indoors but it’s refreshing to come outside and play on grass, but it was a good test for our players being indoors, and hopefully the sun comes out tomorrow (today) and help us in our preparation,” said the former New Zealand skipper.
Bangladesh have a reputation of struggling against the new ball and good seam bowling and the Tigers have been preparing themselves for the challenges of combating New Zealand’s trio of left-arm pacemen – Trent Boult, Neil Wagner and Corey Anderson. Taylor however, warned that New Zealand’s spin attack could also pose a surprise or two for the hosts.
“Bangladesh wouldn’t have seen a lot of them (New Zealand spinners). You know Oshe (Ish Sodhi) is yet to make his Test debut as well, and if he does I am sure he will relish it.
“Any leg spinner is going to be dangerous, if they put the ball in the right areas for a long time. Bruce Martin has been around for a long time, and has been very successful in domestic cricket, I am sure he will looking to cement a spot in the test arena and what better place than to do that than in Bangladesh?” said the 29-year old.
The last time New Zealand toured Bangladesh was in 2010 and the visitors went down 0-4 in the five match ODI series. Asked if there was a sense of looking for revenge, Taylor shook his head.
“Oh, until you mentioned it I forgot all about it. No I mean, as I said before, Bangladesh play very well in their home conditions and we need to be at the top of our game to not only compete but to putpressure on them as well.
“We are focusing on the Tests and we know that Bangladesh are a very good side in these conditions,” he said.
When asked if there is any particular cricketer in the Bangladesh line-up that New Zealand is worried about, Taylor said, “Well 1 to 11. Obviously Tamim (Iqbal) is a world class player and Shakib (al Hasan), there’s Abdur Razzak who has had a lot of success against us in the past. And (Sohag) Gazi we have seen a lot of him through footage. And Mahmudullah has played very well against us as well, scored a hundred in Hamilton.”
