Boult talks of more ‘short-ball’ service for Tigers in Wellington

Even after an innings defeat at Hamilton, Bangladesh were able to turn some of the momentum in their favour following three centuries over the two innings and the team will be a lot more confident when they play the second Test at Wellington on March 8. New Zealand quick Trent Boult knows that the Basin Reserve is usually a good track for batsmen and asserted that New Zealand will be trying more of their short stuff in the second Test after it worked in the first one.

Bangladesh came under a barrage of bouncers in a track which did not provide the swing as was expected given the presence of grass in the surface early before the Hamilton Test. The Kiwi quicks did not always surprise but Tigers were bowled out for just 234 in the first innings due to bad shot selection against short deliveries.

"I'm pretty sure they'll be expecting it," Boult said. "In my opinion it's a tactic which works well when there's not much in the wicket, there's no swing, and you are not left with many other options.

Neil Wagner in particular directed the bouncers well, luring the Tigers to go after them. "We have Wags who is an expert at being able to execute that plan but it's been pretty effective for us so expect it will be more of the same," Boult reiterated.

Kiwis would however be looking to get wickets early. Bangladesh had gotten good starts in both their innings in the first Test. The focus for Boult was to put pressure on the top-order.

"There are few areas we need to work on from how we turned up in Hamilton," Boult said. "We'd like to start a lot better, put more pressure on their top order and take a lot more early wickets because I guess they'll have gained a lot of confidence of being able to put [nearly] 700 runs on us. We are definitely looking to rectify that."