KEY POINTS:
Forget Australia, it's Bangladesh who matter right now for New Zealand's cricketers as they start their two-test series in Chittagong today.
While the appeal of tackling Australia next month is obvious, captain Daniel Vettori wants to ensure minds are focused on the job at hand.
The players need
to get the most out of these tests to get the best possible preparation for Australia. But Bangladesh showed by winning the opening ODI last week that, in their own conditions, they can be awkward. Vettori wants decisive, authoritative performances at Chittagong and Dhaka.
"I'd even go so far as to say this is the only thing that counts," he said last night.
"Probably for myself and [coach] John Bracewell, we'll be keeping an eye on the Australia series and what we need to do to build towards that.
"For everyone else, they have to make sure our performances are strong and it's not going to be easy. If we're even slightly off our game we could get ourselves in trouble."
The only selection issue to be sorted out is whether Tim Southee or Iain O'Brien partners Kyle Mills with the new ball. Tim Southee is favoured, but Vettori said O'Brien had a decent case.
"I always like to reward players for previous performances. Iain did a really good job for us in the tests at Old Trafford and Trent Bridge [in May-June, when he took eight wickets at 23 runs apiece] so I don't want to neglect that.
"But we also understand the improvements Tim has made in the one-day form of the game, where he's been outstanding in our last two series. It's almost a flip of the coin."
The bulk of the bowling should be done by the spinners, and Vettori suspects the pitch will be helping them by the third day.
He thought New Zealand's form in the ODI series was about 50 per cent and wants a sharp improvement.
At their best he believes New Zealand can beat most teams, but finding that level quickly is the key.
"Sometimes when you haven't played test cricket for a while it's a scratching-round process to find that form."
Vettori confirmed that Jesse Ryder would make his test debut batting at No 3.
* The International Cricket Council says the postponed Champions Trophy tournament will be in Pakistan from September 24 to October 5 next year, subject to passing a security assessment in February, after India tour there. It will now be held in one city, probably Lahore, and over a reduced timespan, down from 17 to 12 days.
India will put back the dates of their seven-game ODI series against Australia until later in October.
New Zealand might need to tinker with the dates of their trip to Sri Lanka, where they are due to play three tests and five ODIs through August-September.
The teams:
Chittagong Divisional Stadium, starts 4pm today
BANGLADESH (FROM) Mohammad Ashraful (c), Tamim Iqbal, Junaid Siddique, Mushfiqur Rahim, Rajin Saleh, Shakib al Hasan, Mashrafe Mortaza, Abdur Razzak, Naeem Islam, Shahadat Hossain, Syed Rasel, Mehrab Hossain, Mahbubul Ilam.
NEW ZEALAND Dan Vettori (c), Jamie How, Aaron Redmond, Jesse Ryder, Ross Taylor, Brendon McCullum, Daniel Flynn, Jacob Oram, Kyle Mills, Tim Southee/Iain O'Brien, Jeetan Patel.
