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| April 9, 2006 | Sunday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 10, 1427 |
Bangladesh captain not overawed by Aussies
FATULLAH (Bangladesh), April 8: Bangladesh captain Habibul Bashar says his team will not be overawed when it meets top-ranked Australia in Sunday's first Test. “We have great respect, but not fear,'' Habibul said on the eve of the first Test. “We are focussing on giving our best performance as a team.”
This is Australia's first tour of Bangladesh. The only previous Test series between the two teams was in Australian winter of 2003 --- when the Steve Waugh’s world champions won in Darwin and Cairns by an innings.
Australia captain Ricky Ponting said Bangladesh were ''improving gradually'' and his team was looking forward to a better standard of play in the current two-Test series.
On Friday Ponting retracted his previous comments that Bangladesh did not deserve Test status.
''We are here to play good cricket and that's what we will do,” Ponting said.
''It will be a new challenge to play in different conditions here, and to see where Bangladesh have come since 2003,'' he said.
The two sides last met in a triangular limited-overs series last year, when Bangladesh upset Australia with a five-wicket win at Cardiff, Wales.
Australia, who had net practice on Saturday at another stadium at nearby Dhaka, recalled Jason Gillespie and Michael Clarke in their final XI, while dropping all-rounder Andrew Symonds from the Test side that recently downed South Africa 3-0.
''Michael Clarke gets another opportunity at Test level, having been the twelfth man in South Africa. We believe he's progressed in the last twelve months,'' Ponting said.
''Jason Gillespie has been rewarded after a summer's hard work in domestic cricket. He has been an outstanding performer in the past for Australia and will be looking forward to this Test match,'' he said.
Ponting said the selectors included five bowlers in the team, rather than the usual four, in view of the expected conditions at Fatullah, that were likely to favour spin bowling. Stuart MacGill joins fellow leg-spinner Shane Warne in the side.
Habibul, however, doubted whether Fatullah's slow wicket would yield much turn, saying Bangladesh would use two pacers -- Mashrafe bin Mortaza and Shahadat Hossain --- to complement spinners Mohammad Rafique and Enamul Haque.
Bangladesh included fast bowler Mashrafe, batsman Rajin Saleh and all-rounder Aftab Ahmed in its starting lineup announced on Saturday -- leaving out Syed Rasel, Nafees Iqbal and Alok Kapali.
Mshrafe and Rajin, who missed two recent Test series against Sri Lanka, last appeared in Tests against England in June 2005, while Aftab played Sri Lanka in September 2005.
Australian selectors earlier replaced the injured trio Justin Langer, Shaun Tait and Michael Kasprowicz with Gillespie and Phil Jaques, while inducting Mitchell Johnson from the one-day squad.
The second Test begins April 16 in Chittagong. It will be followed by a One-day International series between April 23 and 28.
Australia played in Bangladesh in a 'mini World Cup' back in 1998, but the nine-nation competition did not feature the hosts.
Teams:
Bangladesh: Habibul Bashar (captain), Khaled Mashud, Javed Omar, Shahriar Nafees, Mohammad Ashraful, Rajin Saleh, Aftab Ahmed, Mohammad Rafique, Enamul Haque, Mashrafe bin Mortaza, Shahadat Hossain.
Australia: Ricky Ponting (captain), Adam Gilchrist, Stuart Clark, Matthew Hayden, Michael Clarke, Michael Hussey, Brett Lee, Stuart MacGill, Damien Martyn, Shane Warne, Jason Gillespie.
Umpires: Aleem Dar and Nadeem Ghauri (both Pakistan).
Match referee: Jeff Crowe (New Zealans).—AP
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