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England eye Test series sweep in Bangladesh

DHAKA - England will be looking to maintain their supremacy over Bangladesh as they aim to sweep the Test series with victory in Dhaka in the second and final match starting on Saturday.

The tourists, who have already clinched the one-day series, are keen to complete a double under new captain Alastair Cook following their 181-run victory in the opening Test in Chittagong on Tuesday.

“This is our last away Test before we go to Australia (for the Ashes),” said Cook. “We discussed the issue this week about what it means to play for England and wanting to win, and how big it is to win 2-0.

“We were 1-0 up going into the last Test in South Africa, but didn’t finish the job (in the recent drawn series). We didn’t perform to the standard we had set ourselves on that trip.

“They (Bangladesh) fought really hard and made it very tough for us in Chittagong. I expect the same over the next five days and we have to be at the top of our game.”

Junaid Siddique scored a maiden Test century and Mushfiqur Rahim made a solid 95 to keep the England attack at bay for more than two sessions before off-spinner Graeme Swann finally ended Bangladesh’s stubborn resistance.

England, who played three pacemen and one spinner in the first Test, have yet to decide whether to include a second spinner at the expense of a seamer.

Swann, the lone spinner in the last match, did the bulk of bowling as he became the first England off-spinner since Jim Laker in 1956 to bag 10 wickets in a Test.

“If we think this (two seamers and two spinners) is the best way to go, we will do that. We’ll look at the wicket and pick a team to win the game,” said the England captain.

“We’ll consider all options and a second spinner is definitely one of those. It is very un-English though. It’s very unlikely to go out in England with less than three seamers.

“These are selection decisions that do come up in the sub-continent.”

James Tredwell is likely to make a Test debut if England decide to go with two slow bowlers, the off-spinner having already impressed with eight wickets in a practice match before the Test series.

Key England paceman Stuart Broad, who missed Thursday’s training with a stomach complaint, is expected to be fit for the match.

Bangladesh coach Jamie Siddons said he expected better from his team in every respect.

“For me — as usual — it’s about us playing our game as well as we can. I expect us to play pretty good cricket,” he said.

“These are our home conditions and we played reasonably well at Chittagong. We need to make more runs in the first innings. We batted probably on the flattest track and made only 296, and that wasn’t anywhere near enough.

“We bowled nine maidens in about 140 overs (in the first innings). It’s ridiculous, not good enough.”

The hosts are likely to make two changes, replacing paceman Shahadat Hossain and batsman Aftab Ahmed with Shafiul Islam and newcomer Jahurul Islam.