Bangladesh-England first Test begins today

---

CHITTAGONG, Mar 11 (BSS): The first Test between Bangladesh and England begins here today (Friday) at the Zohur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium.
Though injury forced Graham Onions to withdraw from the two-test series as he failed to recover from the back injury, England looked in much better shape with 3-0 whitewash of Bangladesh in ODI series, will look to continue on with their good work.
Whereas Tigers are concerned, things have gone from bad to worse, first ace fast bowler Mashrafe Bin Mortaza was not considered for test series for being out of form and when former national skipper Mohammad Ashraful was not selected for the Test series, there were some eyebrow raised, then to make the matter worse dependable middle order batsman Rokibul Hasan suddenly decided to retire from cricket, after only a day he was drafted back in the national team.
Both Bangladesh's coach and captain Shakib Al Hasan showed and talked about their frustration on Rokibil's issue in pre-match press briefing Thursday at Chittagong stadium.
Coach, Jamie Siddonns describes Rokibul's decision as rash and emotional on the eve of the first Test against England in Chittagong, but hopes that the Bangladesh Cricket Board would be smart enough to guide Rokibul whom he thinks is "upset" and "confused".
But Shakib was very aggressive and said board's failure to take action against the fast bowler, Mashrafe Mortaza, who pulled out of the recent one-day series after another row over selection, has set a dangerous precedence for ill-discipline within his squad.
Mortaza took part in the first ODI in Mirpur on February 28, but failing to impress the selectors he was dropped. He promptly walked out on the team, although the BCB covered up the row by claiming he was visiting his sick mother. In August 2008, the opening batsman, Shahriar Nafees, also withdrew from a squad at the last minute.
"If the board had taken an action against that one [Mashrafe], it would have been very good," said Shakib. "That was a big mistake on the part of the board because these are all disciplinary issues. It would have been good if we had sorted out this kind of problem earlier. In the past Shahriar Nafees did the same thing, he withdrew himself after the team was announced.
Rokibul after his good performance against England in the three-day warm-up match was drafted in the test squad. Many BCB members thinks that Rokibul was unhappy for not being considered for ODI series against England and not being in the 30-man preliminary squad for the ICC World Twenty20 in the Caribbean next month.
Coach Siddons said it was a rash and emotional decision which was not going to help him and his family. "I hope some counselling may help him change his rash decision.
"He didn't like being dropped in the way he was dropped, then he missed out on the 30 for the Twenty20 squad, which was probably a bad selection, and he's really disappointed,"
Siddons added. "He thought he'd proved his point that he was good enough to be in that 30, which I think he is, but then he walked away. I don't know who he was trying to hurt, or what point he was trying to prove, but I hope the BCB welcome him back because he's a kid who's a bit confused."
Aftab Ahmed should reap harvest as he will probably replace Rokibul in the middle order and will leave no stone unturned to prove his worth in Test squad.
Michael Carberry and James Tredwell are set to make their Test debut at Chittagong on Friday, and there could yet be a third new cap in the Middlesex seamer, Steven Finn, after England's captain, Alastair Cook, hinted that his first match in charge would involve a twin spin attack and a full complement of six specialist batsmen.
Bangladesh's captain, Shakib Al Hasan, is expected to torment English batsmen team up with his fellow left-arm spinner Abdur Razzak, as well as the offspinning allrounder Mahmudullah as the visitors has given enough indication of being caught on the wrong foot in the second ODI at Mirpur last week.
Bangladesh probable XI- Tamim Iqbal, Imrul Kayes, Zunaid Siddique, Aftab Ahmed, Mahmudullah, Shakib Al Hasan (captain), Mushfiqur Rahim (wicketkeeper), Naeem Islam, Abdur Razzak, Rubel Hossain and Shadahat Hossain.