Bowling the main concern for England

There was a time, not so long ago, when matches involving Bangladesh were an affront to Test cricket's good reputation. Second-string teams would help themselves to career-best performances without so much as a by-your-leave, and at one stage Bangladesh had shuffled haplessly to 12 innings defeats in 14 matches.

But to watch the way in which England have prepared for tomorrow's first Test at the Bangabandhu Stadium in Dhaka, is to be convinced that that era is drawing to a close. Certainly Bangladesh's Test record of 23 defeats in 24 matches is likely to get worse before it gets better, but there can be no doubt that the "Test" has been restored to the cricket that they play.

In their two weeks in this country, England have been tested by the conditions, which have alternated between gaspingly hot and torrentially damp. They have been tested by the facilities (a solitary indoor net some 20kms to the north of Dhaka), and by some of the sights they have seen along the way. But most of all, they have been tested by the opposition, the majority of whom have been members of Bangladesh's Under-19 squad. It augurs well for the future, and makes the present task just that little more enticing.

Most observers are agreed that they have never seen a fitter or better prepared England squad that this. It is one from which complacency is a notable absentee, not least because everyone is too knackered at the end of a day to embrace it. And yet, despite all the gym sessions and throwdowns and shuttle runs, there are still some areas of preparation that cannot be covered by fitness levels, and these continue to cause England's selectors sleepless nights ahead of tomorrow's curtain-raiser.

The balance of England's attack is the central issue. Hardly an interview goes by without mention of Freddie Flintoff, the unquestionable linchpin of the team but a man who will not be making an appearance until the one-day series at the earliest. "With Freddie in the side, the team picked itself," admitted Michael Vaughan in his pre-match press conference. In his absence, however, opportunity knocks for several fringe members of the squad.

The most obvious beneficiary is England's new No. 6 and first-change bowler Rikki Clarke, a man whose career trajectory has something of the Jimmy Anderson about it - in the early part of last season, he was still playing club cricket for Guildford. Now, however, he is now on the brink of his England Test debut, although the susceptibility of his seam bowling has created one or two knock-on effects in the lower reaches of England's order.

Most pertinently - and it is an issue that neither Duncan Fletcher nor Vaughan yet appears to have fully resolved - is the question of whether to play two spinners. Ashley Giles, who cut a lonely figure during last summer's seam-dominated series against Zimbabwe and South Africa, has frequently mentioned how much he enjoys bowling in tandem with another slow bowler, and in Gareth Batty he seems to have hit upon a like-minded but subtly different partner. In the second innings of their recent warm-up match at the Bangabandhu, they shared six wickets - a performance that all but bowled England to victory.

But seam bowling on these slow, low pitches is back-breaking work, and England will be loath to entrust the entire load to just two front-liners. Matthew Hoggard, returning from injury, is guaranteed to start, while Steve Harmison's height and pace have unsettled more than one batsman on this tour so far, even if he has not been whizzing past their nostrils as much as he might like. But, given the strength-sapping conditions, and the doubts about Clarke's stock-bowling role, it is conceivable that Martin Saggers might sneak past Richard Johnson into the starting XI. As he and Hoggard demonstrated last week, when the Board President's side collapsed to 57 all out, an ability to swing the ball is an asset that few Bangladeshis have as yet mastered.

The batting is more settled, although Mark Butcher's throat infection is a slight cause for concern. He had been expected to take part in an optional net session on Sunday afternoon, but was instead advised by the team doctor to rest, and so missed the sponsors' pre-match dinner as well. However, he trained on Monday and has been given the go-ahead to play. Worryingly, his nominated stand-in is Paul Collingwood, who has faced just three balls all tour.

The Bangladeshis, however, merely hope to use the coming days to display their game in a new light. For Dav Whatmore, their new coach and the man who masterminded a similar turnaround in Sri Lankan fortunes, victory remains improbable - it is the manner of their defeat that counts. "I don't give a damn about losing," he said. "I just want to be able to make a close and truthful evaluation of individual performances."

In their most recent Test, against Pakistan at Multan last month, Bangladesh were deprived of victory by a desperate last-wicket stand. Nine of that team remain for this Test, with two new caps added to the squad. The first of these, the left-arm spinner Enamul Haq junior, is just 18 years old and has attracted praise for the maturity of his bowling in the first match of the tour. But the other new boy, Aftab Ahmed, was derided by the local press as a kneejerk selection after his 45 in the same game. He is, they say, too much of a one-day slogger for such an important match. Such strictures are a measure of how far Bangladesh have come in so short a time.

Bangladesh (probable)
1 Hannan Sarkar, 2 Javed Omar, 3 Habibul Bashar, 4 Rajin Saleh, 5 Alok Kapali, 6 Khaled Mahmud (capt), 7 Khaled Masud (wk), 8 Mohammad Rafique, 9 Tapash Baisya, 10 Mashrafe Mortaza, 11 Enamul Haque jr.

England (probable)
1 Marcus Trescothick, 2 Michael Vaughan (capt), 3 Mark Butcher, 4 Nasser Hussain, 5 Graham Thorpe, 6 Rikki Clarke, 7 Chris Read (wk), 8 Gareth Batty, 9 Ashley Giles, 10 Steve Harmison, 11 Matthew Hoggard.