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Bangladesh head coach Phil Simmons admitted that Tigers’ recent batting woes played a significant role in their decision to field only four specialist bowlers in the second Test against South Africa, where the hosts could only took two wickets on the opening day in Chattogram on Tuesday.

The hosts made three changes from the first Test in Mirpur, but two of those were forced. They maintained the same number of batting-bowling combinations. The only difference from Mirpur was that this time they had two pacers instead of one. 

South Africa are playing with five bowlers in this match. 

Simmons, who was talking to the reporters after the completion of the first day’s play, mentioned that they thought about going in with a fifth bowler.

But then they took the recent batting debacle into consideration as Bangladesh got all out for 106 runs in their first innings of the first Test. 

‘Sometimes when you’re batting like we’ve been batting, sometimes you have to air on that side a little bit. And I think that came into the equation,’ Simmons told reporters. 

‘Because for me, you can win a Test match, first of all, and if you can’t get to the stage where you can’t win it, then you must be able to save it. They don’t give up Test matches just that easily. So, it came into the equation, but we decided on this way’, he added. 

Simmons, though, didn’t directly say that it was a defensive approach. ‘It was a lot of consideration. There was a lot of talk about it, and at the end, this is what we came out with.’

He was also not disappointed after a tiring day with little success on the field. 

 ‘I think the bowlers toiled and bowled well. A few missed chances. Could have been different, could be four, could be five,’ said the former West Indies all-rounder. 

‘But you know, it’s a difficult day. I’ve seen difficult days on the other side of the coin when I’ve been here. So, I wouldn’t say I’m disappointed. I can’t say I’m disappointed. It’s been an excellent batting wicket as far as we’re concerned.’

Bangladesh’s head coach also hoped that his team could bounce back on the second day. 

Tristan Stubbs, the South African batter who got his maiden hundred, also thinks that the bowlers will have to work very hard in this game. 

‘We have got KG [Rabada], so he can just bowl... It is going to be a graft’, he said. 

But he expected the game to move swiftly towards the backend.

 ‘They also got the ball to (reverse) just enough to get you thinking. It was a good batting wicket, but it was hard to score freely. You were going to get yourself out by giving them your wicket’, Stubbs added.