Zafar Ansari to make England Test debut as Steve Finn replaces Stuart Broad against Bangladesh

Spinner comes in for Batty for Dhaka duel

Zafar Ansari talks spin with Alastair Cook in the nets in Dhaka ahead of England's second Test against Bangladesh (Getty)

Zafar Ansari will make his England Test debut against Bangladesh in Dhaka in Friday's second match. The slow left-armer, who was left out of the opener in Chittagong despite taking 4 for 68 in the second warm-up game, will replace fellow spinner and Surrey team-mate Gareth Batty in the line-up.

The England captain Alastair Cook also announced Steven Finn would replace the rested Stuart Broad, who was in line for his 100th Test at the Shere Bangla National Stadium.

“Zafar's going to make his debut coming in for Gareth and Finny's coming in for Broady,” Cook said at his pre-match press conference.

All-rounder Ansari made his England debut in May 2015 in the one-off one-day international against Ireland in Dublin - although he did not get a chance to bowl or bat after the contest was washed out after 18 overs. He would arguably have made his Test bow long before now but for a badly broken thumb, sustained on the same day he was named in England's Test squad to face Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates.

The serious nature of the fracture meant he was ruled out for the entirety of the winter and although it also troubled him at the start of the season, he took 22 wickets in 10 Specsavers County Championship First Division matches at an average of 31.40. He will now be given the chance to make an overdue debut in the second Test against Bangladesh, with England looking to wrap up a 2-0 series win ahead of their trip to India.

Alastair Cook explains the changes to the team for the second Test against Bangladesh (Getty)

Cook said: “Clearly he has the ability to take the ball away from the right-handers. One thing I've seen in the nets is he can bowl at good pace with good control. It will be really interesting to see how he goes. He can also bat as well, which is good.”

Cook revealed Jake Ball was in contention to replace Chris Woakes as England wanted to give all their bowlers a taste of subcontinent conditions before a gruelling five-Test series against India, which starts on November 9 in Rajkot. But Woakes will retain his place in the XI, with Cook believing it will be advantageous for the Warwickshire seamer to gain more experience of the conditions.

He said: “In an ideal way we would have liked Jake to have a game as well but we feel as if Chris Woakes hasn't played a huge amount of cricket on the subcontinent, didn't have a a huge workload in the last game and we feel it'll be beneficial for him to experience these conditions.”

Cook admitted it was a tough decision to omit the experienced Broad, whose spell late on day four in Bangladesh's second innings swung the momentum back in England's favour. But he said: “I'm sure he'd have liked to have got that milestone but this is a case of looking a bit further to the future and he understands the amount of cricket he could play over the next six weeks. We want other people up and running, we don't want to go to India with too many people not playing any cricket.”

England won the opening Test by 22 runs on a tense final morning on a pitch that turned from the start and Cook is expecting a similar wicket in Dhaka. He said: “You don't look too much into stats but historically Dhaka spins less than Chittagong. I have a feeling that might not be the case in this game.”