Australia turn the heat around

At the end of the second day of the second Test, in all respects except one Australia looked nothing like the unfamiliar visitors to Bangladesh that they actually are. The only foreign condition that dogged them yesterday was the heat and humidity -- batsman Pete Handscomb had to have ice packs brought out to the middle as play was briefly stopped in the last session to bring the dazed Handscomb's temperature down.

The heat may not have been mastered yet, but David Warner and Handscomb did display the well-documented Aussie toughness to take the team through to the close with the score on a formidable 225 for two, 80 behind Bangladesh's first-innings 305.

"Really gutsy. Obviously it was very hot out there, we saw that yesterday. You have to work very hard for your runs, so to get through and the way they played was excellent," said a satisfied Australia coach Darren Lehmann. "They are in the ice bath now, I'll leave it to the medical team to get them right for tomorrow. Very special day and hopefully tomorrow [Wednesday] they can kick on."

Lehmann, a former Australia batsman who played nine Tests in the subcontinent, said there was nothing much to do in such a situation other than to try to get through it.

"It's really just focusing on each ball and trying to get through. I thought they used their feet really well, they played forward and back, made good decisions. And towards the end of the day when you're like that and under stress it's about just getting through each ball, taking your time."

He seemed relieved that the pitch was much different to the Dhaka wicket. "It's a little bit different. Hasn't done as much as the first Test. Pretty good wicket, more traditional sort of subcontinent wicket. It will start to spin as the game goes on. We played well, tomorrow's another day.

He reserved special praise for David Warner, whose 88 not out and the partnerships he built with Steve Smith and Handscomb formed the backbone of Australia's sturdy position.

"Especially in the last two weeks, I would think more so than anything else," he said when asked about Warner finally cracking the code to batting in the subcontinent.  "The way he has adapted and actually gone and batted in a different way in the last couple of innings has been spectacular for David. He only hit like four boundaries today, which is unusual for him. Obviously, they spread the field quite a lot so it's hard to hit boundaries.

Even with Steven and him, after the early loss [of opener Matt Renshaw] to get us going and into the innings and then, to control Pete at the back end is what you want from your leaders. And now, he's [Warner is] that talented, he's probably got it now (snaps fingers), so I figure he'll really play well over here for us."