A day to go in Chittagong and England are five wickets away from a comprehensive victory. And no one is happy.

Why exactly? England have eschewed risk. Six batsmen. Three seamers. Trying to grind Bangladesh into the dust by not enforcing the follow-on. Pragmatism has reigned. And, barring rain (fittingly it is now raining in Dhaka) or a miracle, it will get them a win.

It’s been an efficient, unspectacular team performance – save for Paul Collingwood’s hitting and the odd jaffa from the bowlers – against a callow Bangladesh.

Isn’t that what we wanted? All the talk in the build-up to this series was of a potential banana skin for England – arrogant England, who left their captain Andrew Strauss at home.

This Test has seen runs and captaincy experience for his replacement Alastair Cook. Cook has been tested much more in the field than at the crease – a flat track making England’s seamers work harder for their wickets than they would have wanted, but it won’t do his appreciation of the game any harm. The decision to bat again has been criticised, but is there really any suggestion that the Bangladeshi tail have the technique or the temperament to last a whole day?

Six batsman rather than five has inevitably been construed as unnecessarily defensive in the context of England’s 599-6. But given the troubles of Kevin Pietersen, Michael Carberry’s debut, worries over Prior’s recent lack of Test runs and England’s preference for depth it seems understandable. It also gave them what they wanted, a massive first-innings total that made losing the game unthinkable.

The extra batsman neccessitated the choice of Steve Finn over James Tredwell – a decision that upset one or two. Given Graeme Swann’s success, England may well have wrapped things up by now if he were in tandem with Tredwell. But England don’t tour the subcontinent again until 2011-12 (and that a tour to troubled Pakistan), so surely it serves England’s interests better to assess the heart and skill of Finn and Tim Bresnan on unhelpful wickets? Looking at the brittle appearance of England’s frontline seamers, both could have important roles to play in Australia next winter.

This is not to advocate an Ashes-centric approach to team selection, but England picked a team to win this Test match, and they look like doing so without much fuss. Isn’t that enough?

Sam Collins is editor of thewisdencricketer.com

Follow him on twitter @wisdencric_sam