LONDON, (Reuters) – England indulged in an extended  practice session at the expense of a willing but inadequate  Bangladesh attack on the first day of the opening test of the  English summer yesterday.

Shakib Al Hassan’s decision to ask the home side to bat was  ostensibly based on the assistance his pace bowlers would draw  from the heavy cloud cover and a sprinkling of overnight rain.

It was also probably influenced by fears that his fragile  batting lineup would be cruelly exposed by the England pace  attack.

In the end, Bangladesh bowled badly and England reached 362  for four with Jonathan Trott batting most of the day for 175 not  out.

“We didn’t put enough balls in the right spot,” Bangladesh  coach Jamie Siddons told a news conference. “We bowled eight  maidens which is not nearly good enough in test cricket. “The ball didn’t swing as much as we thought it would, the  sun coming out didn’t help us at all and the ball didn’t swing  after that.”

Before the current two-test series, Bangladesh’s wickets in  overseas tests had cost a prohibitive 66.81 runs each and on the  evidence of yesterday’s performance the average is not likely to  fall any time soon.

Trott and debutant Eoin Morgan had the most to prove among  the England batsmen with the former enduring a disappointing  tour of South Africa and Bangladesh after scoring a century on  debut against Australia last year.

After getting off the mark with a boundary from his third  ball, Trott’s first 50 runs took 75 balls, his second 58 and his  third 110 with only two boundaries.

Captain Andrew Strauss had called for longer innings from  his specialist batsmen and Trott’s response indicated he had  absorbed the message.

He also knows that he and Morgan will probably be competing  for one place when Paul Collingwood returns to the side once his  injured shoulder has fully recovered.

Morgan was not out 40 at the close, scoring his first  boundary with the reverse sweep he uses to such effect in  one-day cricket.

“We lost a couple of wickets and I didn’t want two new  batters and I wanted to be there for the new ball,” Trott said.

Strauss marked his return to the England team after missing  the series in Bangladesh with 83 but there was disappointment  for Kevin Pietersen and Ian Bell who were bowled for 18 and 17  respectively.

Bell had previously averaged an astronomical 244 against  Bangladesh while Pietersen’s average was 83.33, a further  indication of the frailties in the visitors’ attack.

Today England bowlers should get their chance in what  will also effectively be a dress rehearsal for the tougher tests  ahead. They have four matches against Pakistan followed by the  Ashes defence in Australia and the 50-overs World Cup on the  Indian sub-continent.

In the absence of Stuart Broad, who is undergoing  conditioning training, the spotlight will be on tall young  Middlesex fast bowler Steven Finn to show he has the stamina to  match his pace in the test arena.