Live updates: Australia vs Bangladesh, first Test, day one from Darwin

To Head, three slips still in place, and Head leaves it outside off.

Head leaves another one that nips back a long way and only misses the off stump by a fraction.

Too leg side and Head clips away to fine leg for a single.

Taskin stays around the wicket to Weatherald.

BIG SHOUT! That's too high I think, Weatherald gets a stride in a long way across after stepping back to the leg side with his back leg and he's caught on the crease. It's too high and Taskin's shout is ignored by the umpire.

FOUR! Another big stride and Weatherald almost collapses to the off side as he clips off his leg stump for a boundary. It's given as byes, tough on the keeper that.

He leaves the last.

And he bowls outside off stump, left alone by Head.

Head's leg side stroke play is not the most elegant, he looks to lever the ball to square leg with a flick that exhibits his immaculate timing, but he can't get it off the square.

LEADING EDGE! Head gets away with one there, again looking to turn the ball to the leg side and was through the shot too early, the ball plugging a bit in the surface and it loops up in the air, falling safe next to Jake Weatherald. Very lucky.

Head gets off strike with a cut to the leg side for a single.

BEATEN! Weatherald is beaten again, another nipping ball that cuts back in on Weatherald. Again, not far away but the ball has done plenty off the deck.

BEATEN! A wide delivery that Weatherald throws the hands at and he misses getting an edge on it.

FOUR! A cry of catch it as Weatherald fends the ball off the back foot past the gully fielder and away to the third man boundary. Not convincing. He got a bit of a stride in but then fell backwards... Hmmmm.

Weatherald pulls, the ball hits the hip of Weatherald and they run a leg bye. Not convincing from Weatherald, who will be nervous. Didn't look like he wanted to take a step to the ball at all.

Head clips off his pads for a single.

BEATEN! That's a great ball! 131km/h and it leaves Weatherald who is desperately fortunate not to have got an edge on that. It's a brilliant ball but again, Weatherald's initial movement not great, stepping towards the leg side with his back foot. His technique has been questioned, and those questions will continue.

He's rapped on the pads, pitching down leg and too high.

And he leaves the last.

Not a convincing over from Weatherald.

Right arm fast, starting around the wicket, and he bowls straight to Travis Head, who defends off his pads.

FOUR! No ball too. Too full, floated towards the stumps and Travis Head crushes that thought point for a boundary.

Outside off, left alone, bit better in terms of pace and zip there from Taskin.

Left of length there from Taskin, Head leaving it well alone. There are three slips and a gully in place as Taskin looks to slant the ball across the face of the Allan Border Medallist.

Defends off his pads next up, Taskin getting back into his groove after that poor second delivery.

Rapped on the thigh pad, good ball from Taskin, just nipping back into Head a little bit. Head was sitting back in his crease there and just not quite on the right wavelength to a ball that's pitched there.

Solid defence ends the first Test over in Darwin for 23 years.

Bangladesh began its tour of Australia with a foreboding innings loss to the Cricket Australia XI, in which the Tigers were bowled out for just 54 in their second dig.

Couple that with injuries to exciting young fast bowlers Nahid Rana and Shoriful Islam, and it has been a far from ideal lead-in for the tourists.

But wicketkeeper-batter Litton Das is a welcome return from injury for Bangladesh — he'll slot into an experienced middle order that also features 39-year-old mainstay Mushfiqur Rahim, spin-bowling allrounder and centurion from the warmup game Mehidy Hasan Miraz, as well as captain Najmul Hossain Shanto.

Shanto may well be the key for Bangladesh in the top end. He's averaged over 42 across the past two years with the bat, and is now his country's most successful Test captain, having won eight of his 19 games leading the team.

While the middle order may be an area of strength, Bangladesh comes into the series with a distinct lack of stability up the top, having rotated through a number of openers in recent years.

That has left No. 3 Mominul Haque — who has a very respectable Test batting average of 38 from his 78 matches — with plenty of work to do on plenty of occasions.

Australia opener Jake Weatherald will play a Test match in Darwin with a modified technique that he will unveil against Bangladesh in a series of vital importance on a personal front.

The 31-year-old was born and raised in Darwin where his career kicked off after playing with Northern Territory Strike.

Of all the batters in the Australian side ahead of the two-Test series, his position is the most precarious.

Weatherald made his debut in last summer's Ashes series and scored just 201 runs at 22.33 in five Tests, with his only half-century a vital 72 in the second Test in Brisbane.

Fox Cricket commentator Mark Waugh said of Weatherald that during the Ashes there were "a few worrying signs with his technique, falling over and getting hit on the pads a lot.

"I think he needs to rectify that, and I think he needs runs in these two Test matches to be picked for South Africa," Waugh said.

Weatherald said that it was "a challenge, especially when people you respect say things about your batting", but added the scrutiny was part and parcel of Test cricket.

"I think you are required to make runs anywhere you go," Weatherald said.

"When someone like Mark Waugh says that, he is probably just stating the obvious, isn't he? I have a good opportunity to play two games hopefully and make runs. If I don't do that I put fate in someone else's hands."

Weatherald played county cricket for Leicestershire in a six-game stint in April and May when he made 483 runs at an average of 60.37. The highlight was an unbeaten 103 against Glamorgan.

It was a good opportunity to make tweaks to his technique against bowlers who used the English conditions to bowl fuller and target his stumps.

"The conditions there were very conducive to improving my technique. That was a great learning curve for me," he said.

Since last summer Weatherald said he had made "a few tinkerings" to his technique and approach, while not forsaking the strengths that came to the fore in the Ashes.

"It was great to have a prolonged time to work on things I can get better at," he said,.

"I have come back feeling ready and not feeling I have changed too much."

The opportunity to score runs in Darwin is one that excites not just Weatherald but also the many Territorians who admire him.

"I am excited to get out there and put on a bit of a show, which I always try to do, and enjoy it as well," he said.

"It is just a big moment for the Territory, being a Territorian player.

"I know how big of a deal it is for NT cricket and all the boys and girls come up and say what a big deal it is for them. It is not just for me, but for everyone else."

AAP

Marrara Stadium curator Jake Pavlich is rightly proud of the drop-in split-pitch Australia and Bangladesh will play on today, as Darwin prepares to host its first Test match in 23 years.

The narrow centre square will provide different challenges for the batters in particular, but the split in the middle is nothing for players to fear.

"It won't affect the play. It is just a bit of aesthetics," Pavlich explained.

"There will be a visible line but it is flat."

The split-pitch was first used in Australia in Darwin when Bangladesh was also the visiting Test side in 2003.

The pitch is prepared in metal trays in a compound and consists of two 12 metre sections. This is necessary because of the infrastructure underneath the pitch area which Pavlich said consists of "a concrete slab with sand over it".

"When it goes into the compound we make sure it is perfectly together so we prepare it as a full-length pitch," Pavlich said.

"You do this work for 10 months on a full-length pitch and then you cut it in half and take it out there."

The Marrara surface received rave reviews when Australia played South Africa in T20 internationals last year.

But the last time a Test was played at the venue was in 2004 against Sri Lanka, when Shane Warne, Jason Gillespie and Glenn McGrath were heading Australia's attack, with Justin Langer and Matthew Hayden opening the batting.

Australian allrounder Beau Webster said the team would embrace the "unknowns".

"It is a small square, a two-wicket square. Runs square of the wicket are going to be tough when it is digging in to the spongy outfield," Webster said.

"We have spoken about running between the wickets where it is a little bit different when you have got a 10-wicket block and the ball races off square of the wicket, so just to be mindful of things like that.

"In terms of the surface it is a bit of an unknown to both teams. It is going to be critical on day one to sum it up as quick as we can, and if we are bowling to get the lengths right, and if we are batting feed the information back to the batters."

AAP

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