'Tough cricket coming up'

The wicket at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium seems as much of an actor as the two teams playing the match. Footmarks had shown up by the end of the first hour on Sunday, the first day of the match, and over the first two days there has been turn and bounce both even and uneven, while also offering surprisingly good carry for the pacers, particularly those from the southern hemisphere.

21 wickets in two days is ample evidence of the wicket's partiality towards the bowlers, and Shakib Al Hasan said on Sunday that he didn't expect the game to last five days. With the sun unexpectedly beating down on the barren, grey surface, there were some spitting cobras as Bangladesh reached stumps on the second day with a lead of 88 runs and only one wicket lost. Australia spinner Ashton Agar, who claimed the solitary wicket, said that he expected the wicket to play even more of a role in the coming days.

"It's definitely getting a bit harder. Off the good stuff [the lighter areas near the middle of the pitch] though, it's not too bad, although it is starting to spin a bit more off the good part of the wicket," Agar, who also scored an unbeaten 41 in Australia's 217 all out, said after the day's play. "It's going to be some pretty tough Test cricket for the next few days. It's going to get harder and harder to bat on. They bowled well and Shakib [Al Hasan] got five wickets, Mehedi [Hasan Miraz] bowled really accurately as well. When you hit a good length it's pretty hard to score, sometimes you have to take a risk and that's often when they get a wicket."

Mehedi, meanwhile, insisted that the bowling has to be up to the mark for the pitch to be utilised: "As important is the fact that our bowlers are bowling very well, bowling in good areas. No matter how the wicket plays if you don't bowl in good areas it is hard to get wickets. Shakib bhai bowled very well, it was outstanding. Apart from him, the rest of us like myself, Taijul [Islam] and Mustafizur [Rahman], although he didn't get wickets -- he bowled in good areas and checked the runs."

Even with his team's back against the wall, Agar was excited by the conditions. "This is what spinners love. When the ball jumps and spins, especially off the good part of the wicket, this is what we really like."