CHITTAGONG: Captain Mushfiqur Rahim insisted on Wednesday that Bangladesh would not use their long break from Test cricket as an excuse as they seek a first victory over England in the game’s longest format.

While Bangladesh have inflicted embarrassing defeats on England in ODI and Twenty20 cricket, they have lost all eight of their Test matches and are desperate to break that sequence in the next fortnight.

Given that Bangladesh have not played a Test match for 15 months, they could be forgiven for being somewhat ring-rusty when the first contest in a two-match series begins on Thursday at Zahir Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong.

But Mushfiqur said the hosts would not dwell on their lack of five-day cricket and instead seek inspiration from their vastly-improved form in the shorter formats.

“If we start thinking about these things, then we are going on the back foot,” he told a press conference. “Now is the time to play and we are focusing on that. Being a professional cricketer you cannot say that we have not played for the last 15 months.

“The important thing is how you can do well in the coming five days. We are not concentrating on not having played for a long time.”

Once the whipping boys of international cricket, Bangladesh’s performances in limited overs have earned them respect and they are no longer regarded as pushovers — especially on home turf.

They won six consecutive ODI series at home in a sequence dating back to November 2014, before England’s narrow 2-1 victory earlier this month.

“The last two years we played ODIs very consistently. We did not win all the matches but the graph has been on an upward path,” said Mushfiqur. “So we want that we can become a team like that in Tests too, that we can play better and better with each Test.”

While Bangladesh have had a dearth of Test cricket, England play more Test matches than any other nation, something which their skipper Alastair Cook acknowledged should give them an advantage.

“You get into a rhythm of playing Test cricket, there’s no doubt about it,” said Cook while stressing that England would not be guilty of complacency.

“As we saw in the one-day series, Bangladesh are a hugely improved cricketing nation over the last three or four years. There’s talent, which we hadn’t necessarily seen in the past, and a pathway through for guys. I think it will be a really good test for us.”

England will use the Bangladesh series to solve selection issues and prepare for the potentially tougher series they face over the coming months.

Cook’s latest opening partner is the most pressing matter to resolve with 19-year-old Haseeb Hameed and Ben Duckett, 22, in contention to get the job in place of Alex Hales, who opted to miss the tour due to security concerns.

Hameed is a favourite having enjoyed a prolific county season with Lancashire in which he batted with great maturity and displayed a sound defensive technique.

Duckett is a more attacking player, a fierce cutter and puller of the ball, and many believe he would provide a more suitable foil for the obdurate and disciplined Cook, particularly against the inexperienced Bangladesh seam bowlers.

England could opt to play Duckett in the middle order in place of Gary Ballance, who has not cemented his place after being recalled to the side this year.

Meanwhile, Cook will become England’s most capped Test player on Thursday — his 134th appearance in whites for his country.

Given that he is still only 31, remains at the top of his game and is remarkably injury-free, talk is growing that Indian legend Sachin Tendulkar’s all-time record of 200 Test appearances could be vulnerable.

Cook is already the only Englishman to score more than 10,000 Test runs and widely tipped to also overtake Tendulkar’s record of 15,921 runs.

Teams (from):

BANGLADESH: Mushfiqur Rahim (captain), Tamim Iqbal, Imrul Kayes, Kamrul Islam Rabbi, Mahmudullah, Mehedi Hasan, Mominul Haque, Nurul Hasan, Sabbir Rahman, Shafiul Islam, Shakib Al Hasan, Shuvagata Hom, Soumya Sarkar, Taijul Islam.

ENGLAND Alastair Cook (captain), Moeen Ali, Zafar Ansari, Jonny Bairstow, Jake Ball, Gary Ballance, Gareth Batty, Stuart Broad, Jos Buttler, Ben Duckett, Steven Finn, Haseeb Hameed, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes.

Umpires: Kumar Dharmasena (Sri Lanka) and Chris Gaffaney (New Zealand).

TV umpire: Sundaram Ravi (India).

Match referee: Ranjan Madugalle (Sri Lanka).

Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2016