'Mushy's wicket brought us back'

It's not the best of welcomes when a spinner is asked to open the bowling after returning to Test cricket following a decade-long gap. And it therefore wasn't a surprise when England off-spinner Gareth Batty admitted that he was a bit nervous after being handed the ball in Chittagong yesterday.

"I have never bowled with the new ball, which added to the nerves. My first ball was a bit of a pie as well, so it was nice to get that one out of the way," Batty said after yesterday's play.

It was the first time that England had used a spinner to open the innings since Monty Panesar in November 2012.

Nevertheless, the off-spinner enjoyed bowling on the turning track at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium. He bowled at a good line and beat the batsmen a number of times before being rewarded with the crucial wicket of Tamim Iqbal.

On a spinner's paradise, the slower bowlers are likely to dominate the remaining three days of the match. England, in fact, lost all their wickets to spinners. This was only the third time that Bangladesh's spinners managed to achieve this feat, and a majority of the credit should go to 18-year-old Mehedi Hasan Miraz.

Miraz's figures of 6 for 80 are the second best recorded by a Bangladeshi on debut. It led to England getting bundled out for 293, their lowest against Bangladesh in Tests.

The turning track did make life extremely difficult for the batsmen and they had to sweat it out. Just ask Tamim Iqbal. He posted his career's sixth slowest 50-plus score yesterday. However, as of day two, the pitch doesn't seem unplayable. Batsmen who are ready to fight it out can score runs. 

When asked if the pitch could deteriorate in the coming days, Batty said: "There are rough bits. As the game goes on there will always be a ball that spins big, it's just the balls in between. You need to look at the run rate, hold the game, don't let them [Bangladesh] get away from you and hopefully the nick comes. [Ben] Stokes's wicket [of Mushfiqur Rahim] got us back."

With the wicket expected to be more venomous in the coming days, Bangladesh will want to take as big a lead as possible in the first innings. So far, they have only managed to take the lead on seven occasions, with their highest margin being 78.