Wellington: New Zealand won the toss and elected to bowl to get maximum use of the green wicket and strong winds in the first Test against Bangladesh at the Basin Reserve in Wellington on Thursday.
“It’s a little bit soft on top so hopefully we can exploit some seam early on,” captain Kane Williamson said.
“The wind, although it is very, very strong, is going across and hopefully will bring in a bit of swing for the right armers.”
New Zealand have made one change from their last Test line up with Trent Boult returning from injury to replace Matt Henry.
Bangladesh have two debutants, Taskin Ahmed and Subashis Roy, while 19-year-old all-rounder Mehedi Hasan will be playing his third Test.
Bangladesh go into the match with an element of confidence having beaten England in October, although that was on a turning home track and they are unfamiliar with the Basin Reserve conditions in their first away Test since September 2014.
“It’s very unfamiliar but we had a couple of good practice sessions in the past couple of days. Hopefully the batters will apply themselves,” said skipper Mushfiqur Rahim.
New Zealand have never lost a Test against Bangladesh and are on a golden streak at home having won two Tests against Pakistan while sweeping the three 50-over and three Twenty20 matches against Bangladesh.
The forecast for Thursday is gale force winds gusting up to 120 kilometres per hour (74.6 mph) with the possibility of showers late in the day.
Teams
New Zealand: Tom Latham, Jeet Raval, Kane Williamson (capt), Ross Taylor, Henry Nicholls, Colin de Grandhomme, BJ Watling, Mitchell Santner, Tim Southee, Neil Wagner, Trent Boult
Bangladesh: Tamim Iqbal, Imrul Kayes, Mominul Haque, Mahmudullah, Mushfiqur Rahim (capt), Shakib Al Hasan, Sabbir Rahman, Mehedi Hasan, Taskin Ahmed, Subashis Roy, Kamrul Islam Rabbi
Umpires: Marais Erasmus (RSA), Paul Reiffel (AUS)
Third Umpire: Nigel Llong (ENG)
Match referee: Javagal Srinath (IND)
AFP