The New Nation - Internet Edition

Bdnews24.com, Dhaka

Bangladesh look to fight to the end on home turf against Sri Lanka in the first of the two Tests that begins on Friday at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur.

"Looking back at the last two home series, we played better against New Zealand and South Africa and this time we hope to offer a good cricket against Sri Lanka," captain Mohammad Ashraful said at a pre-match press briefing in Mirpur on Thursday.

"A few players have no experience of playing against Muttiah Muralitharan, but most of our players can read his doosra though Sri Lanka have good pace and spin attack. We hope we will deal with their bowlers successfully and play good cricket," said Ashraful.

Spin wizard Muralitharan has grabbed 76 wickets in nine Tests against Bangladesh, who lost all, including seven innings defeats, of the 10 Tests they have played against the emerald islanders.

After the frustrating show in South Africa, Bangladesh, aware of the Muralitharan threat, are likely to go for a sporting pitch, though the hosts went close to pushing New Zealand and South Africa in the Tests on spinning wickets at home in the last two series.

"I had a look at the wicket, it seemed harder and a bit greenish and I think it would not turn so much," said Ashraful.

"We actually wanted such a wicket, which both batsmen and bowlers can exploit."

Coach Jamie Siddons believes it was about time his players shored up their performance against the visitors.

"We played the best two teams in the world in three series in the last six months and now we have a team that I think we should be able to compete pretty well.

"There is no excuse. We are still young and developing side, but I think its time for the players to step up," said Siddons.

The Australia-born coach also said it was time for Ashraful, Shakib Al Hasan and Mehrab Hossain to start making big scores and give the bowlers something to bowl at.

Bangladesh's top order miserably failed in South Africa and the bowlers hardly had any point to prove against the hosts.

Siddons is happy with the ways the bowlers had been preparing under the supervision of Sri Lankan bowling coach Champaka Ramanayake.

"(We get) more feedback from Champaka. He helps us a lot in our preparation and he has been working with all the bowlers and captain to come up with a game plan.

"But at the end of the day it's Shahadat (Hossain), Mashrafee (Bin Mortaza) and (Mahbubul Alam) Robin to hit the stumps, using their skills to the best of their abilities and hitting the right areas." said the coach.

It' was uncertain whether Bangladesh will put their faith in three pacers along with only one specialist spinner in Shakib as the team management has picked 12-men squad keeping Rajin Saleh and Sajedul Islam out.

"I think Enamul (Haq Junior) will be the twelfth man, but we are not sure yet," said Siddons.

The management will probably wait until Friday morning to see the conditions before picking the eleven as the stadium area was covered by fog at about 11:00am on Thursday.

Sri Lanka are also yet to decide on their squad though captain Mahela Jayawardene said they have agreed about 90 percent on the team composition.

"We know about the 90 percent of our combination but we wanted to wait and see how the wicket is going to come out and then will make a final decision."

It's almost certain that Sri Lanka will play with two specialist spinners Muralitharan and Rangana Herath, who snared six wickets in the lone warm-up match against the BCB XI.

"I think any wicket if you play on it for five days slows down and you know it will probably take spin and when you have quality spinners you should make use of them. That's something we're going to consider.

"Obviously, Rangana bowled really well in the warm-up game and you have Murali in your side, so I think we will go for what we think is the best combination for this Test," said Jayawardene.

"We don't underestimate the strength of Bangladesh and what they are capable of doing, so we just need to focus on the game plan that we want to play, and try and execute the game plan."

"They have got some quality players. I know they make mistake.

"But at the same time there are guys who scored 100 against us and picked up five wickets against us. They have got the quality, so we got to make sure that we don't give them any advantage," said a cautious Jayawardene.

The Test match will have a one-day break after the third day on Dec. 29 because of the national election.