The New Nation - Internet Edition

Sports Reporter

Bangladesh Cricket team led by Mohammad Ashraful will face New Zealand Cricket team led by Daniel Vettori in the first Test match of the BRAC Bank Test Series which begins today at the Bir Sreshtha Shaheed Ruhul Amin Stadium in Chittagong, the port city of the country. The match starts at 9.30 AM everyday. Bangladesh Television will telecast the match live from the stadium everyday.

Before today's Test match, Bangladesh faced New Zealand in six clashes and the Tigers lost to the Kiwis in all the affairs.

Daniel Vettori said that his team would back on spin to beat the hosts in the Test matches.

Vettori added that their spin options were well covered up and if they could play on the same pitch where they they played the third ODI, it would be slow. He also added that they would wait and see. Vettori added that it might dust up a bit and crumble at the later stage.

Vettori said, "If we can give our fifty percent effort of our ability we should have no problem to win the two Test matches."

On the other hand, Mohammad Ashraful said, " We want to bat eight sessions. If we can do that in the upcoming Test match, we can bring a good result for our team."

Ashraful added that they expected that the ball would come slowly onto the bat on that wicket. He also added that their spinners could do a trick for them.

Meanwhile, the Tigers and the Kiwis took part in the practice session yesterday.

It may be mentioned that Bangladesh team are going to play without their experiencied players as those players joined the ICL.

Bangladesh squad : Mohammad Ashraful (captain ), Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, Tamim Iqbal, Zunaed Siddique, Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mehrab Hossain (Junior), Rajin Saleh, Naeem Islam, Abdur Razzak and Shahadat Hossain.

New Zealand squad : Daniel Vettori (captain), Daniel Flynn, Jamie How, Brendon McCullum, Kyle Mills, Iain O'Brien, Jacob Oram, Jeetan Patel, Aaron Red mond, Jesse Ryder and Ross Taylor.