Can Bangladesh put up a fight?

How do you think Bangladesh will fare against Kiwis in the test series? can they give Kiwis a run for their money or will it be as usual an abysmal performance by Bangladesh? A we know Bangladesh's test record is poor as they have won only one test since their entry into test cricket in 2000 and that too against a depleted Zimbabwe team.

Bangladesh in recent times have lost few of their players to ICL like Basher, Nafees, Ahmed etc, yes players like Ahmed, Basher were out of form still both had made some useful contributions to Bangla cricket over the years, so it is a big loss for them. In their absence Bangladesh will depend a lot on the mercurial Ashraful in batting, someone who can play a blinder of an innings but more often than not flatters to deceive,players like Iqbal too has not done justice to his talent and he has to take up more responsibility , Sakib ul Hasan on occasions has shown that he can play well as has the keeper Rahim but all of them need to take the next step as it is not like they have come recently but all of them have at least 2 to 3 years of experience what with Ashraful having 7 years of experience. it will also be interesting to see how will J.Siddique play, yes he scored a 90 odd in the first onedayer but test cricket is a lot harder to succeed and he will be tested. Bangladesh also have to be patient against bowlers like Mills, Oram, O.Brien etc as all of them tend to bowl just wide of off stump and look to test a batsman's patience and I have seen on numerous occasions Bangla batsmen getting impatient and throwing their wickets away against such type of bowling, especially someone like Mills or O'Brien can be dangerous for Bangladesh, of course they have to watch out for Vettori, and Patel as well both of whom on those wickets can be a handful.

In bowling Bangladesh have Murtaza who is an hardworking seam bowler, Shahdat Hossain can bowl at good pace though he is inconsistent, Rasel the left arm medium pacer too looks promising but against Kiwis Bangla will depend a lot on Razzaq who with his left arm spin can be a handful on those tracks and he can take advantage of Kiwis being not that well versed in playing spin though one good thing for Kiwis is that they already have played onedayers which should help them as they will be more used to the conditions. I would also add that someone like Enamul Haq the left arm spinner should have been included in the squad as he flights it more than Razzack and gets a bit of turn. As far as New Zealand's batsmen are concerned Taylor looks the best bet as he is a good player of spin, of course Oram has been in tremendous form in onedayers and he will be confident of doing well. Bangladesh also have to field better as they have been lacking in that area.

All in all everyone expects Bangla to get thrashed in test cricket but I hope they can at least put up a fight in the upcoming test series and it is not like they do not have any talent but they need more focus.