Bangladesh picked up only one seamer in the form of Mohammad Shahid for the one-off Test match against India that started on Wednesday.
Rubel Hossain was not completely fit for this one-off Test and was therefore left out of the playing XI. Bangladesh's coach Chandika Hathurusinghe said that Hossain is likely to be fit for the three-match ODI series against India.
"Rubel's thing is that he is coming after an injury and is not hundred per cent. The other reason is that this wicket, we thought that if Rubel has to play and has to bowl a lot then there is a chance of a recurrence of his injury because he didn't get a chance to play practice matches," Hathurusinghe told reporters after the end of the day's play.
"Not that he is not fit, he is not to fit to bowl on this kind of a wicket because you need a lot of effort to bowl on this kind of a wicket to be successful. If the wicket was helping fast bowlers, we could have gone in a different way," Hathurusinghe added.
Bangladesh bowlers struggled on the first day to get their line and length correct. They could not pick up a single Indian wicket on Day 1 on a flat pitch, which made batting easier for Indian openers Shikhar Dhawan and Murali Vijay. Dhawan and Vijay added 239 runs in 56 overs on rain-curtailed Day 1.
Spinners were the only option for Bangladesh skipper Mushfiqur Rahim but they too were not effective. Fielding also left much to be desired; Dhawan was also dropped when he was batting on 73*, he went on to score his third Test century.
"The reason to pick the spinners is again because of the condition of the wicket. The other thing is having a variety of spinners taking the Indian team's history for last few series. A few off spinners have been successful against them.
"We cannot control the Indian strength, what we can control is what we do with our resources. Rubel, we are keeping him for the One-days. It is very crucial for us to win the ODIs, knowing that if we win at least one game, we have a chance of qualifying for the Champions Trophy. So if the condition was different, we would have played another seamer," Bangladesh coach said.
Hathurusinghe stressed they want to win this Test match in spite of Bangladesh's poor performance with the ball on Day 1 on Wednesday.
"We still want to win. We are still playing to win, that's what I can tell you. I don't see anything different in the body language. Only thing is the scoreboard says 239 for no loss. But in cricket anything can happen. Until both sides finish at least one innings I can't come to conclusion whether we have done the right thing or not. I didn't see anything wrong with the body language," Hathurusinghe said.
