England:
Strauss: Attractive couple of 80’s which he will have been disappointed not to convert to hundreds. Iffy captaincy at times though as we felt on occasions he could have been a little more attacking. 7/10
Cook: Two failures = rubbish. Will surely come good in next game. 4/10
Trott: Good innings against a bowling attack that Geoff Boycott has called “less good than your average minor counties team”. Can he do it when it counts? We think not. 8/10
KP: Defeated by a left arm spinner again which is always amusing to see. Such a strange weakness for a player of KP’s class! 4/10
Morgan: Tidy start and will be heartily disappointed he didn’t go on to make it a big one. Will be back. 6/10
Bell: Not much of a contribution but after a strong winter can be assured of his place. 5/10
Prior: Untidy keeping and unfortunately run out. Must be feeling the pressure from both Kieswetter and Davies. 5/10
Bresnan: County trundler. Nothing more. Nightmares of Bresnan opening the bowling in Brisbane and Ponting’s eyes lighting up with anticipation of the carnage to follow. 5/10
Swann: Entertaining cameo with the bat, nothing with the ball on what was good early season wicket. Will undoubtedly be back. 5/10
Finn: Excellent stuff and ended up leading the attack. Tight lines, good pace. Will be looking forward to Old Trafford. On the boat for Australia… 8/10
Anderson: Too often goes missing when by rights he should be the leader of this attack. Same old story of ‘good Jimmy, bad Jimmy’. Still averages a high 34 with the ball. 6/10
Overall: Managed to win comfortably in the end despite several misfiring team members. Bresnan, Cook and Anderson need to pick up their games. 63/110
Bangladesh:
Tamim Iqbal: An excellent test match for someone fast approaching top five favourite players for the Compulsive Hooker. Deservedly getting on the honours board. 8/10
Imrul Kayes: For a player averaging 13 in test cricket he did astonishingly well. Test bests in both innings. Can he maintain this form though? 7/10
Junaid Siddique: Two grinding innings, two fifties. Never looks comfortable against the short ball but signs of progress being made in dealing with it. 7/10
Jahurul Islam: Two negligible contributions. Needs to kick on. 6/10
Mohamed Ashraful: Did he play? 2/10
Shakib Al Hasan: Dreadful captaincy, seemingly setting out to lose from day one. Poor batting, pretty poor bowling. 4/10
Mushfiqur Rahim: Looked good in the first innings and kept tidily. We think he is batting too low as he looks a better player than one or two that the top of the order. Still young and should score hundreds as he develops. 6/10
Mahmudullah: For someone with one of the better records in the Bangladeshi team, why is he batting so low? Needs to be given a proper batting slot and given a chance to score runs rather than being asked to bat with the tail. Reasonable bowling without looking like he was going to run through England. 6/10
Shadahat Hossain: Must be the worst choice of night watchman ever as does not appear to possess a defensive shot in his armoury. Bowled well in the first innings to pick up 5 wickets and get on the honours board. Problem is though he is even more limited than Tim Bresnan! 6/10
Rubel Hossain: The quickest of the Bangladeshi bowlers and for that reason alone should probably open the bowling. Has a bizarre action which doesn’t lend itself to consistency of line and length. Would have made a better nightwatchman than Shadahat, although when this is the nicest thing you can say about a bowler – you know it hasn’t been a good test match. 3/10
Robiul Islam: Would struggle to get into a county second eleven. Epitomises Bangladesh’s problems away from home on green tracks with no turn for their spinners. 2/10
Overall: Useful batting when the sun shone and one feels they are making real progress there. How they will ever take enough wickets to win though is a major issue. 55/110
The Compulsive Hooker 
Hello Brad,
Think you’re being a bit harsh on Cook, he got 2 shocking decisions by the Mr Magoo-esque De Silva. Also Anderson didn’t look great in the first innings but the improvement kept coming, it’s his first bowl in a month or so. Bresnan isn’t great, but he did the job eventually.
I think on the whole it wasn’t a perfect performance by any means, but it was ok. I think Strauss showed decent patience and didn’t panic when things didn’t immediately click.
Bangladesh might have a couple of decent bats, but on the whole they are rubbish. I heard yestereday that despite being their closest neighbours, India have never invited the Banglies to play a test there. Think that speaks volumes.
True on the decisions, I’d forgotten about the first innings one when I wrote that. I just can’t warm to Bresnan as a test bowler, would like to see someone else given a go like Shahzad perhaps as the prospect of him bowling in Australia scares me! Cheers Polly.