Australia skipper Smith says Mirpur wicket ‘slow, will turn as time progresses’

Even a day ago, the Aussies were in the dark about which pitch the first Test would be played on, what its nature would be. Australia captain Steve Smith now has the answer to his questions.

After inspecting the track on Saturday, he thinks it will be a slow one. His Bangladeshi counterpart, however, still appeared uncertain about how the wicket would play out.

On Friday, two of the tracks at Mirpur’s Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium were kept uncovered during Australia’s practice. But their efforts to figure out on which track the game would be held yielded no results.

Based on his relationship with Chandika Hathurusingha when he was a coach at New South Wales, offspinner Nathan Lyon even turned to the Tigers’ head coach for an answer at a ceremony on Friday night.

But Hathurusingha did not shed any light on the strip to be used.

The tourists were able to take a look at the pitch on Saturday.

“I had a look at the wicket. I think it will be quite slow and get some turn as the game goes on. No real surprise for me. We have to adapt to the condition," Smith said at the press conference.

For Mushfiqur, however, the nature of the pitch appeared to have remained a mystery.

“Actually reading Mirpur’s wicket is tough. The weather and conditions are different. Although we had the opportunity to practise, predicting the wicket is still difficult,” the Tigers’ skipper said.

“The nature of the wickets keeps shifting all the time in this kind of weather. Often there is no sunshine the whole day, and then there is some. It’s not easy.”

Earlier this month at the training camp in Chittagong, Mushfiqur said he was hoping for a turner in this series, similar to the one they had against England.

But on Saturday, he pointed out the limitations the curator faced due to the weather.

“It’s also tough for the one who prepared the wicket, because of the conditions. How much water the track needs? Will there be sunshine the next day? These things need to be taken into account.”

Mushfiqur and Co have been playing on this ground for years. Though the field has gone through some renovations over time, the foundation of the wicket remains the same. It has only been topped with a new layer.

A few days ago the Tigers held a match simulation on the centre wicket which should have helped Mushfiqur come up with a better analysis of the wicket.

The case, however, may also be such that the 29-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman wants to keep his observations a secret. He put stress on the way of playing as more important than the wicket itself.

“Regardless of how the wicket is, it will be the same for both the teams. How much dedication we show is what matters more than the conditions. No matter how much the conditions favour you, if you can’t perform well nothing will [bring good result],” he added.

“The first innings will be very important for us, be it bowling or batting. We’ll try to stay on top from the outset. We’ll try to do well in batting, bowling and fielding each. If we take it a session at a time and do well every ball, we can produce something good.”

 The match is set for a 10am start local time on Sunday.