Cricket: Bracewell's selection dilemma

1.00pm - By DYLAN CLEAVER

Black Caps' coach John Bracewell faces some tough choices ahead of Tuesday's second test, as he tries to maximise limited preparation time before the tour in Australia.

The toughest decision might be at the top of the order, where he'll be anxious to give Hamish Marshall a game. Not to do so would render all the pre-tour talk about seeing if he could carry his one-day form into the tests pointless.

Likely to give way would be Nathan Astle, who so disappointed in England and failed again in the first test at Dhaka. But this in itself creates problems as Astle will be a crucial component in any serious attempt to dethrone Australia.

If Bracewell does reshape the team, will he tinker with the order?

Mathew Sinclair adapted well as opener, but surely his eye-hand, no-feet technique means he will have to drop down the order against the Australians?

Given that Bangladesh pose no threat of an upset, Bracewell must be sorely tempted to use the struggling Scott Styris as the third seamer and give Ian Butler a break from the futile attempt to get life out of subcontinent pitches.

Again this creates a problem.

Australian pitches will assist Butler's raw pace and current thinking suggests underdone bowlers are as fragile as overworked ones. As Daryl Tuffey is going to have limited work before the tour, there are going to be very few overs in the bowlers' shoulders before they lock horns with the Matthew Haydens and Damien Martyns of this world.

If New Zealand have some selection problems, their dismantling of Bangladesh by an innings and 99 runs inside four days threw up warning bells for the hosts.

While the result may never have been in doubt given the disparities between the two sides, watching the Bangladesh batsmen crumble for 126 against spinners Daniel Vettori and Paul Wiseman in their second innings will have coach Dav Whatmore reaching for the aspirin.

The last seven Bangladesh wickets fell for 39 runs as Vettori mesmerised them at the Bangabandhu National Stadium taking six for 28, for his eighth test five-wicket bag, while Wiseman recovered from some early punishment to take three for 64.

New Zealand's first innings of 402 was founded on Brendon McCullum's majestic 143 - his maiden test century.

Bangladesh were only introduced to test cricket in 2000 and the current side have an average age of 23, so lopsided results will occur. But they're a team raised on spin bowling, and more resistance was expected playing at home, even on a pitch offering maximum assistance to the spinners.

"I think a number of their dismissals would concern them," Black Caps skipper Stephen Fleming said yesterday.

"I think the way our spinners were able to dominate in their conditions was testament to the quality of our spinners, but their technique also needs some work."

While acknowledging the comfortable victory, Fleming also put his own side on notice.

"We were under pressure in the first part of our innings until we got some dominance through Brendon and Jacob Oram's partnership.

"They probably needed to be a little more patient at times," Vettori said when questioned about the Bangladesh collapse. "When you put them under pressure you felt they could play a rash shot at any time.

"If anything they needed to be more patient and look to score in easier areas."

Before the first match in the two-test series, Vettori had taken just 16 wickets from his past 10 tests at an average of 76, with his previous five-wicket bag coming in Perth against Australia in 2001.

He finished with match figures of 10 for 54 from 51 overs and also passed Danny Morrison's total of 160 to become New Zealand's third leading wicket taker. Chris Cairns is second with 218.

"Yeah, I suppose it's been a bit of a lean spell in terms of wickets, so to knock Danny Morrison's record on the head was great.

"Now I can take on Chris," said the 25-year-old who now has 166 wickets from 56 matches.

For the second test, starting in Chittagong on Tuesday, Bangladesh have dropped opening batsman Hannan Sarkar and seamer Alamgir Kabir. Uncapped batsman Aftab Ahmed and spinner Enamul Haque Junior have both been brought in.

"We have decided to call Aftab Ahmed into the middle order as we had a bitter experience in the first test," Bangladesh's chief selector Faruk Ahmed said.

Ahmed, 19, made his one-day international debut in last month's ICC Champions Trophy in England, scoring just 21 in his two innings.

Bangladesh squad: Khaled Mashud (captain), Rajin Saleh, Javed Omar, Mohammad Ashraful, Nafees Iqbal, Manjural Islam Rana, Tareq Aziz, Mushfiqur Rahman, Aftab Ahmed, Alok Kapali, Tapash Baisya, Mohammad Rafique, Enamul Haque Junior.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY