“It is probably the worst wicket I’ve come across in my career,” Southee said. “The balance between bat and ball was heavily favoured into the bowler’s hands. I think for the match to be over in 170 overs sort of reflects that. So, for our guys to scrap away and then come away with the win was a big pleasure.

“I think it was just a scrappy Test match. It was obviously a tough wicket. Runs were hard to come by, and just those little moments and partnerships throughout were crucial, whereas in other matches, I guess when conditions are a little bit more even between bat and ball, they don’t get noticed as much.”

“When we play Tests, we are not here to improve. This is not a place for practice. We are trying to win the Test,” Shanto said. “It is important that we prepare to win the Test, but we should definitely take this type of advantage. We can prepare in first-class cricket by trying out good wickets. We should prepare wickets like these and wickets like away conditions in NCL [National Cricket League] or BCL [Bangladesh Cricket League].”

Asked if the pitch in Sylhet for the first Test, where play went into the final day, gave the team more of a “home advantage”, Shanto pointed out that bowlers had struggled there.

“It wasn’t a very helpful wicket for bowlers in Sylhet. Bowlers had to work hard for their wickets. There was a bit of help for both bowlers and batters,” he said. “We didn’t bat well in Dhaka. We should have scored 230-240 runs in the first innings. The wicket seemed bad because we got 172. New ball was a challenge, but that’s also true anywhere around the world. It wasn’t anything different here, but we could have avoided this situation if we batted better in the first innings.”