Mominul Haque, the Bangladesh Test captain, expects his team to improve in Tests if they take positive decisions. Like picking five specialist bowlers, as they did in the first Test against Sri Lanka. They also decided to bat after winning the toss. It was a rare occurrence for Bangladesh on foreign soil, considering the greenness of the Pallekele pitch, and it was another positive call.
As such, the look of the pitch meant little, scores of 541 for 7 declared, 648 for 8 declared, and 100 for 2 proving that. But the two sides, especially the visitors, would not have known this when they chose their XIs or took a decision at the toss.
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"If you want to win a Test match in Sri Lanka, you should always have five bowlers in the team," Haque said. "We were playing a Test after two months, so if someone bowled poorly or got injured, we would have been in more trouble. To get ahead in Test cricket, you should play with five bowlers and six batsmen.
"You will always want five bowlers if you want to take 20 wickets. Also, having six batsmen makes everyone take a bit more responsibility. But, while there was some advantage in this decision, there was some risk too. We usually don't play with six batsmen, but I think we should always play with five bowlers. That's what big teams do."
The best teams also take first-day conditions head on. Batting first reflected the mindset of the Mominul Haque-Russell Domingo firm. So far, Bangladesh have chosen to bat on all three occasions they have won a toss in an overseas Test.