Dhaka: Spinner Zafar Ansari is set to make his England debut in the second and final Test against Bangladesh while Stuart Broad is rested as Alastair Cook rotates his side ahead of the tour to India.
Ansari was chosen ahead of his club teammate Gareth Batty, the off-spinner who took four for 116 in the first Test win in Chittagong on his Test return after an 11-year-absence.
Broad, who will be replaced by Steven Finn for the match, which starts on Friday, faces a wait until next month's tour of India to play his 100th Test match.
"Clearly we had the opportunity to not rotate, but the last thing we wanted was to go to India with too many people who haven't played much cricket," Cook told BBC Radio 5 live.
"We don't know a huge amount about either Batty or Ansari in terms of Test cricket... but they will get one Test each and that is important."
Slow left-armer Ansari, claimed 22 wickets in 10 matches for Surrey in the County Championship and will hope to form a potent bowling threat along with off-spinner Moeen Ali and leg-spinner Adil Rashid.
"One thing I've seen in the nets is he (Ansari) can bowl at good pace with good control," Cook said at the pre-match press conference. "It will be really interesting to see how he goes. He can also bat as well, which is good."
The 24-year-old Ansari was named in England's squad for the three-Test series against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates last year, but was injured hours after his first Test call-up.
Cook told his pre-match press conference that fast bowler Jake Ball had also been in contention to replace Chris Woakes, who bowled just 14 overs in the first game. "In an ideal way we would have liked Jake to have a game as well but we feel as if Chris Woakes hasn't played a huge amount of cricket on the subcontinent, didn't have a huge workload in the last game," he said. "We feel it'll be beneficial for him to experience these conditions."
Traditionally, the Dhaka pitch has offered more for the batsmen than Chittagong, but Cook said he expects a similar challenge to the one they faced in the first test.
"You don't look too much into stats but historically Dhaka spins less than Chittagong," he said. "I have a feeling that might not be the case in this game."
Bangladesh captain Mushfiqur Rahim has said that consistency will be their main target in the second Test, even though their fighting performance in Chittagong raised expectations of a better result in Dhaka.
"Our challenge will be to play consistently, especially against a good side like England," Mushfiqur said. "We wouldn't have become the No. 1 team in the world by beating England in Chittagong so our target remains to do well over four to five days in a Test, and afterwards if we get into a winning position, we will push on. We have many more performers in our side these days. So everyone has expectations from the players. Our performance and the fight we put up in the first Test wasn't unexpected. We will also try to cope with the pressure of expectation."
Mushfiqur said that the loss in the first Test, and the bitter aftertaste as the margin was their closest in terms of runs, would spur them on for the second match. "We are still hurting from the loss in Chittagong so it is best to move on from that game... We know that had we given 1 per cent more, the Test would have been in our favour. We would like to take the positives from that game, and use them in Dhaka."
Mushfiqur said that the Bangladesh spinners' attacking nature would keep them in the game for a long time, though heavy rain on the day before the first Test could have some effect on the Dhaka pitch, which was expected to be drier than usual.
"The rain might have some impact on our plans... The wicket is mostly prepared but if the sun was out today, it would have dried up further. If there's a bit of moisture, the ball would be gripping on the surface for the spinners. Shakib-al Hasan, Taijul Islam and Mehedi Hasan combined to take 18 of the 20 wickets to fall, and they will be expected to have a similar effect in this game as well.
"Their spinners don't have to attack because of their pace bowlers. For us, the spinners are the main weapon; they have to attack and take the wickets. I think in that sense, our spinners are ahead of them. They are natural at bowling with the new and old ball, defensive or aggressively. But I would still say that our spinners have room for improvement."
