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Batting will be the main concern for Bangladesh when the Tigers take on India in their second and final Test starting in Kanpur on Friday.

The Tigers lost the first Test by a huge margin of 280 runs in Chennai. 

Despite having India sliding to 144-6 in the first innings, Bangladesh were hurt by the record seventh wicket partnership put by Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja.

But it was the batting that frustrated the captain, Najmul Hossain Shanto, the most. 

Bangladesh only managed to score 149 runs in the first innings. They began on a spirited note in the second innings, but bundled out for 234 eventually. 

The track of MA Chidambaram Stadium offered assistance to both the pacers and spinners at different stages of the match with even bounce. 

But the pitch at The Green Park in Kanpur will be reportedly a more traditional Indian wicket, which will assist the spinners. 

The venue last hosted a Test match in 2021 when India took on New Zealand. A fighting batting performance from Tom Latham helped the Kiwis secure a draw with only one wicket remaining in the second innings.  

Since then, only a single Test ended in a draw in India. The hosts have yet to lose a series since 2012 on their home soil. 

Both Bangladesh and India had played three seamers in Chennai. In Kanpur, both teams could consider going with spin-heavy attacks. So a third spinner might come into the XIs. 

Bangladesh will have the option of playing left-armer Taijul Islam or off-spinner Nayeem Hasan alongside Shakib Al Hasan and Mehidy Hasan Miraz.

So one of the pacers, Hasan Mahmud, Taskin Ahmed, or Nahid Rana, would have to make room. But the main concern will be the batting, according to the head coach, Chandika Hathurusingha. 

In the first innings of the Chennai Test, four batters had crossed the 20s for Bangladesh, but none were able to take it to 50s with Shakib being the highest scorer with 32 runs. 

Shanto himself scored 82 runs in the second innings but that remained the only half-century of the innings, with three others crossing the 20s. 

‘We have our KPIs, what we want, and we normally talk about if you make a start, make it big. That’s the biggest concern, because some of the guys got 30 balls [and then got out],’ Hathurusingha told reporters in Kanpur on Wednesday.

‘In cricket, it’s the hardest thing to get in. But then, this team, India, has been posing different challenges, so we know that as well. So we have to be better for longer’, added the Sri Lankan. 

In the batting department, a change in the middle order is unlikely, with uncapped Jaker Ali being the only option there. 

But Bangladesh have Mahmudul Hasan Joy, the right-hander opener who missed the Pakistan series due to an injury. 

With the discussion of having five left-handers in the top six and Indian right-arm pacers exploiting the angles created, Joy may come into consideration. 

Hathurusingha though ruled out that they would consider Joy only because of being a right-hander. 

‘Just because of the left-handers, right-handers, is not the thing that we will take into consideration,’ he said.

But he did not rule out making a change in the top order either.

‘If we are making a change, whether that batsman, whether Mahmudul Joy or whoever is coming in, what he can bring and who will miss out, and we look at it holistically like that, rather than left or right.’