Injury-hit England gear up for Bangladesh Test

England go into the opening Test against Bangladesh on Friday hoping their depleted pace attack delivers and Kevin Pietersen ends his dismal run with the bat.

The tourists' bowling resources have considerably dwindled due to injuries since their arrival in Bangladesh, with seamer Ryan Sidebottom already ruled out of the two-Test series and paceman Graham Onions for the opening match.

Key fast bowler Stuart Broad is racing against time to be fit for the match after suffering a back spasm during the recent one-day series, won by the tourists 3-0.

"It's definitely not an ideal situation.

The back spasm could come back very quickly," said Alastair Cook, leading England for the first time in Tests.

"He (Broad) bowled nine overs yesterday and two heavy spells today, so we'll see how he is tomorrow.

That's another selection issue we'll have to play by ear and see how it goes."The visitors, already without regular captain Andrew Strauss (rested) and fast bowler James Anderson (injured), will look to their second-choice attack to maintain their unbeaten Test record against Bangladesh.

England have won all of their four Tests against Bangladesh.

Off-spinner James Tredwell and seamer Steven Finn are likely to make their Test debuts after impressive performances in a recent drawn practice match.

England's biggest worry is the form of star batsman Pietersen, who made only 41 in three one-dayers against the hosts and 22 in two innings of the practice match."I hope he keeps failing because it'll be one less batsman to worry about," said Bangladesh coach Jamie Siddons.

"He is a great player.

At some point in the next four innings he'll have a performance, but hopefully it won't hurt us." Bangladesh will pin hopes on slow bowlers to trap England's batsmen on a pitch likely to help spinners, with Shakib Al Hasan, Abdur Razzak and Mohammad Mahmudullah expected to play big roles.

"We all know spin is important in the sub-continent.

Spin is a huge issue and the England side over the last three or four years has made a huge effort to improve on that," said Cook.

"The way we dealt with spin in one-dayers was excellent and hopefully we can continue like that for the next two weeks.

Their spinners will be a huge threat and for us to take them lightly would be a cardinal sin.

"For me, it's a huge challenge as captain.

We have come here to win both the series and have done the first job very well.

We now have the second part and we want to win these Tests." Skipper Shakib will be looking forward to a consistent performance from their batsmen to keep pressure on the under-strength England attack.

Bangladesh have dropped experienced batsman Mohammad Ashraful following his indifferent form, but have talented batsmen in Tamim Iqbal, Shakib and Mahmudullah.

The hosts will also be without batsman Raqibul Hasan who surprisingly retired from the game on Wednesday, just a day after scoring a hundred and a half-century against the tourists in the practice match.

The final Test starts in Dhaka on March 20..