Will pace rule?

One would have probably expected a lot more carnage from South Africa's pacers in the first Test in Chittagong. The perception is very much valid as long as the likes of Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander and Morne Morkel -- all of who are among the world's top ten bowlers -- are in one side.

However, as Morkel and Tamim Iqbal pointed out on Tuesday, the track at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong didn't offer much to the pacers. South Africa's pacers struggled to bowl with the wet SG ball and could barely execute their plans.

While the port city venue wasn't exactly a pacers' den, the conditions in Mirpur are likely to be a bit different. It's not as though the bowlers will be able to extract as much bounce as witnessed during the ODIs against Pakistan and India, however, the bounce on offer is expected to be considerably more than what was seen in Chittagong.

The issue here of course is important since South Africa are a team that primarily depend on their pace attack.

In fact, the wicket in Mirpur has generally had a bit for the faster bowlers in it. That could perhaps be the reason why the Tigers have struggled to draw Tests here. Of the 13 Tests at the home of Bangladesh's cricket, they have only drawn twice against New Zealand; and both those matches were rain-affected.

Bangladesh skipper Mushfiqur Rahim was very much aware of the scenario and yesterday admitted that it would be a more difficult challenge to fend off South Africa's pacers in Mirpur than it was in Chittagong.

"It will be difficult obviously. That's why the specialist batsmen… the top order and middle order, we are all working on a way to cope with it. It will be difficult but it won't be impossible, because we have played well against such an attack before.

"But we have to do this for long periods. We can't just bat well for one session and do badly in the other. So the challenge is to sustain this for a long time and cope with the pressure and put up long partnerships," said Mushfiqur.

Pace bowlers have enjoyed a lot more in Dhaka than they have done in Chittagong. Of the 375 wickets that have been taken here, pacers have taken 177 of them.

It therefore wasn't a surprise to see Bangladesh's team management look at the centre wicket for long periods of time during their training session yesterday.

When asked about the wicket, Mushfiqur however provided a mixed response.

"The wicket is more or less the same. Because of the weather, maybe it was difficult to prepare a wicket as per the curator's wishes since it rained for ten to twelve days and the wicket was under covers.

"But even then we are happy with what we have got. Hopefully it will be good for the batsmen," said Mushfiqur.