England’s 181-run victory wasn’t the most convincing, so what did it tell us?

Five things we learned

1. The first two days were misleading. Yes, Bangladesh’s bowlers were worse than Boycott’s gran, but it was a blip. The fight, application and skill shown on the final three days, especially from Mushfiqur Rahim, Junaid Siddique and Shakib Al Hasan, was the real Bangladesh and points to a team not too far away from a first Test win against quality opposition.
2. Tim Bresnan might be a good enough Test bowler after all. His ball that removed Tamim Iqbal in the first innings was world-class. So much so that he ran down the track shouting ‘Jaffa’.
3. Michael Carberry can play some lovely looking shots but so can James Anderson, and neither of them are Test batsmen.
4. Liam Plunkett is ace at giving people drinks. He’s so good at it that England couldn’t possibly contemplate offering him a game or the drinks-carrying department would go into meltdown. They’d be bringing out cherryade instead of lucozade and crazy stuff like that.
5. Steven Finn has an excellent temperament and enough skill to develop into a very good bowler (as long as he doesn’t get good at handing out drinks).

Five things we already knew

1. Kevin Pietersen is a very good batsman and anyone who thinks he should be dropped is clearly bonkers. And probably a bit racist.
2. If England lost Graeme Swann for the next Test they wouldn’t win.
3. A batsman not out in Bangladesh can be out anywhere else in the world. No, not because of cheating or dodgy umpiring but because there are no referrals. It makes no sense.
4. Despite criticism of the declaration (unfair in my mind), Alastair Cook looked a sound captain. Ok, we didn’t already know that but I’m trying to convince people that I did. He missed a few tricks but, well, he’s allowed to on debut; Derren Brown wasn’t predicting the lottery the first time he played Butlins.
5. England are a better side with five bowlers, not the four they picked throughout the South Africa tour and now in Bangladesh. It’s conservative with a small, shy, whimpering c.

Daniel Brigham is assistant editor of The Wisden Cricketer

Follow him on Twitter: WisdenCric_Dan