Steven Finn’s fine performance in the first Test against Bangladesh has drawn comparisons to Glenn McGrath, helped no doubt by Finn’s own assertion that he wants to emulate the Aussie great. In the Independent Angus Fraser calls for a little perspective, saying Finn is no doubt a great prospect, but comparisons to McGrath are premature.

Nobody should underestimate the potential of Finn, who left Lord's for Old Trafford with the fine match figures of 9 for 187, but McGrath's record – 563 wickets at an average of 21.64 – is outstanding. McGrath's ability to take wickets on any continent, against any batsman and on any type of pitch is there in the history books for everyone to see. His record for Australia is phenomenal and he performed almost day in, day out for a period of more than 10 years. As Steven told me when I spoke to him yesterday afternoon, he is now only the small matter of 550 Test wickets away from emulating one of his heroes.

In the Telegraph, Simon Hughes burrows into the psyche of Jonathon Trott and determines the man is after runs, not fans, which is no bad thing for England.

It is that naked ambition and application which England need. It is that total immersion that enabled him to make a century against Australia on his test debut last summer, an innings vital to England's Ashes triumph. His dedication to the crease is writ large, in the painstaking redrawing of a line demarcating middle stump, extending a yard down the pitch towards the bowler. The reason, to allow him to stand outside his crease in county cricket "to make the bowling faster", he says. That is a measure of how desperate he is to succeed at international level.

Almost mechanical in his movements, he is not an especially compelling batsman to watch, tending to chug along at his own pace to his own rhythm.

There is a slightly clinical nature to his shots. He could be a German footballer. You'd bet he'd score from the penalty spot. After a lot of practice, of course. We don't like people like that in England, do we? But you have to admire them. They are winners, and that is the point is it not?

Michael Atherton says a couple of lifeless pitches robbed the series of excellence and intensity, but writes in the Times that despite the disappointing results for Bangladesh and the questions raised over their Test status, it is a country where the game inspires and is central to a notion of national identity.

It is a country with little other than enormous manpower. The only positive stories to emerge recently out of Bangladesh are the Nobel prize given to Muhammad Yunus for his revolution in microcredit, and the Bangladesh cricket team. People recall the celebrations after the unexpected World Cup victories over Pakistan in 1999 and India in 2007, and the outpouring of national pride that followed. Suddenly, people were seen wearing Bangladesh cricket shirts and Bangladesh flags were paraded proudly in the street.

Now Shakib Al Hasan, the captain, is one of the world’s leading all-rounders — a great source of shared pride — and his contract with Worcestershire is seen as evidence of Bangladesh’s growing influence on the cricket world. Each landmark — Siddique’s maiden hundred and Bangladesh’s highest Test score against England, for example — is cherished as a step in the right direction. Cricket provides rich nourishment in a diet that is low on self-esteem.

Simon Hughes writes in the Daily Telegraph that Bangladesh needs more exposure to the top teams, and lauds the vibrancy and enthusiasm they bring to world cricket.

In the Guardian, Mike Selvey works in a reference to Orson Welles' classic 1949 film while calling for a more regular deployment of a fielder at third man.

Perhaps, for true evocation, this should be read while sitting in the Café Mozart in Vienna, eating strudel while listening to Anton Karas and his zither, for it concerns the third man and his virtual disappearance, a species threatened with extinction.

Kevin Pietersen’s recent loss of form and travails against left-arm spin have been well documented, but Duncan Fletcher, the former England coach, writes in his Guardian blog that he believes the batsman has the necessary reserves to meet his problems head on and fight his way back to his best.

All players have weaknesses. One of the things that impressed me most about Pietersen when I worked with him was that where a lot of people run away from their problems, he has always been willing to meet them head-on. If he feels that facing left-arm-spin is an area of concern, then he will practise playing that style of bowling over and again in the nets.

	Jonathan Trott made his first hundred since he became an instant Ashes hero © Getty Images

The second day's play in Chittagong was Jonathan Trott's, writes Mike Atherton in the Times, because the ‘Forgotten man’ of the tour gave the selectors a reminder of his ability with a well-timed century. Come the first Test, Trott will open with Alastair Cook if England decide to play five bowlers, or bed back in at No 3 if they play a four-man attack.

His idiosyncrasies (or irritations, depending on your point of view) have not disappeared, but the Bangladesh A players seemed less annoyed than South Africa’s. Trott still fiddles at the crease and spends an age marking out that curious line of his that stretches a yard or two down the pitch from leg stump. But somehow the pace of the game is slower here, the Bangladeshi players calmer, and so his mannerisms were less grating.

Simon Barnes looks at Kevin Pietersen's run of poor scores and wonders what has happened to him, that he should fail four times in succession against Lilliput.

A trip to Bangladesh should have got feet and bat and mind back in rhythm, but so far we have seen nothing but a troubled man. The first Test against Bangladesh begins on Friday. Not a walk in the park, but a serious test of technique and inner strength.

Oliver Brett technically analyzes the reasons behind Pietersen's loss of form in his blog in BBC Sport.

The trouble is, if he doesn't get out poking around like an old lady at a church fete he gets out playing an expansive shot, which is exactly what happened when he was bowled by part-timer Mohammad Ashraful on Wednesday. Which, exactly, is the more pernicious mode of dismissal?

They may have been worn down by failure but Bangladesh's story is also one of individual achievement in the face of much hardship. Writing in the Guardian, David Hopps believes their naivety belies a passion that deserves respect.

England's Test series against Bangladesh could prove dangerous, not because the hosts are good, but because they are bad. In the Telegraph, Scyld Berry warns of the dangerous consequences.

This series will be a test of character for England – another fortnight of shuttling between Dhaka and Chittagong – and a test of their reserves, as their fast bowling resources have drained away with injuries; the inevitable result of making England play all year round, as if the ECB didn't already know. But the two Tests won't be a proper test of cricket skills: for England it will be like an exam in which you are given an occasional look at the answers.

In the same paper, Steve James picks out six lessons for England from the one-day whitewash against Bangladesh.

By dredging their talent from an open pool, England are losing the power to make their fans feel deeply unhappy. Barney Ronay explains in his blog on the Guardian website.

This is a mix-and-match bunch, although there's nothing wrong with Alastair Cook that couldn't be solved by simply not letting him play again until he's in his mid-thirties. Cook is a peculiar contradiction a young, thrusting, handsome, baseball-capped arthritic nurdler. It feels wrong.

Kevin Pietersen, under pressure and out of sorts, needs to go back to his basics against Bangladesh, feels Vic Marks.

Mike Atherton is of the opinion that downplaying England's ODI series win in Bangladesh would be doing a disservice to Bangladesh as well as to the consistent English side which has now won its third consecutive away ODI series. Writing in the Times, Atherton is pleased with the overall English performance, barring Kevin Pietersen's form.

Pietersen’s continuing lack of productivity was just about the only irritation for Flower, who conceded after the match that his star batsman was “worried” about his form. To add to the frustration, he fell to a left-arm spinner again yesterday, although he seemed less than pleased to be given out leg-before on the front foot to Abdur Razzak. Ten years ago it would not have been given out but times have changed and replays showed that Pietersen’s stride was a big one, but that the ball was straight enough.

	We need to talk about Kev © AFP

Though the England camp may not be worrying too much about Kevin Pietersen, Stephen Brenkley in the Independent wonders whether his slump in form more than just a blip?

The question is not whether he can play well enough as an international batsman to retain a place in the team. He certainly can, if only because this is a cycle in the game where the cream of English batting out there in the shires is really only semi-skimmed. The question is whether Pietersen can regain the powers that made him such a glorious spectacle and formidable opponent.

With the runs having dried up, Pietersen appears to have found life’s road an ever lonelier one to tread. Simon Wilde in the Times says the pressure is on him to produce for England like never before.

As ever, Pietersen’s situation is the most intriguing. It doesn’t seem to matter whether this fame-junkie is doing brilliant things, or looking sorry for himself as he is now, the viewing remains compulsive.

It isn't Matt Prior's glove work that is under scrutiny, but his batting, particularly his ability to see England home in just the situation he and Eoin Morgan found themselves in on Tuesday. Hence, with the ODI series against Bangladesh secured, the selectors may hand Craig Kieswetter the gloves for Saturday's final match, writes Derek Pringle in the Telegraph.

Batting at No 6 requires a wide range of strokes and nerves of steel. Nobody doubts Prior’s competitive spirit but his shots under pressure are usually limited to big ones between long-off and extra cover. In a different context, it would have been noted just how suspect Prior was under duress when England were hanging on for those two last-gasp draws against South Africa two months ago.

David Hopps raves about Eoin Morgan in the Guardian and believes the Irishman has the ability and the temperament to become one of the best one-day finishers in the world.

In the same paper Mike Selvey says Morgan is not just drawing comparison with England's best ever finishers but with the remarkable Michael Bevan.

Morgan's sparkling century, which carried England to victory, leads Lawrence Booth to claim that England may finally have a big-hitter to take on the world. Read on in the Daily Mail.

This is a batsman who honed his excellent hand-eye batting skills in a Dublin alleyway with three cricket-mad brothers — not, as has been claimed, in a primary-school dabble with the Gaelic sport of hurling. And he has translated his unorthodoxy into success at all but the highest level. Test cricket will surely not be deprived of his originality for long.

In the same paper, Nasser Hussain explains why Twenty20 has taken the fear factor out of modern batting, thereby causing so much innovation these days.

Bob Willis cannot find enough words to praise Eoin Morgan after his calm unbeaten ton under pressure saved England the blushes in the second ODI against Bangladesh. Writing in cricket365.com, Willis is of the opinion that Morgan deserved to be carried off the pitch shoulder-high after his Mirpur heroics.

The left-hander's innings reminded me of the very best of Graham Thorpe and Neil Fairbrother rolled into one. He is a very resourceful player who has the advantage of being stronger than either Thorpe or Fairbrother were; that power allows him to loft the ball for six and execute a punishing reverse sweep, a shot which remains a revelation.

	Craig Kieswetter: Following a well trodden path © Getty Images

As the South Africa- born Craig Kieswetter pads up for England, Mike Selvey notes in Guardian that fretting over the country's foreign-born players, is but a means of ignoring the ills inherent to the domestic system.

South African cricketers do not just come in and storm the castle. Geoff Miller and his selectors choose them for no reason other than that in their opinion they are the best players qualified. Were there home-grown players who could prove themselves better, they will get selected instead. So where are they? Specifically where are the batsmen? What is on trial is not the ambition of mercenary cricketers but the system in this country that identifies talent early enough but then fails to advance batsmen of promise from representative age-group cricket through the system.

	I'm gloving it: Craig Kieswetter © Getty Images

Kieswetter's blitzkrieg in England's opening match of the tour of Bangladesh has presented them with a conundrum they might like but could have done without. Potentially prodigious talent though he may be, Kieswetter seems merely to confirm the suspicion that England's selectors are still largely dependent on players with dual passports. Stephen Brenkley has more in the Independent.

Do they open the one-day batting with him and use him as wicketkeeper? Whither Prior, whither the 13 opening partnerships already used since the last World Cup? When will the next South African knock on the door?

Kieswetter, allrounder Ajmal Shahzad, batsman Michael Carberry and spinner James Tredwell are on Sam Sheringham's radar on BBC Sport. He believes that opportunity knocks for England's new recruits on the tour of Bangladesh, with the likes of Andrew Strauss and James Anderson opting out.

The temporary nature of Alastair Cook's tenure as England captain in Bangladesh makes it a delicate proposition, writes Stephen Brenkley in the Independent, but if he can tackle that now it will make it easier for him later on when a permanent successor is being sought.

It is important that Cook not be judged one jot on his performances in media briefings, where he is not exactly unhelpful but is not revealing either. Few of his predecessors have shone brightly before the damn-fool questions of the fourth estate and others seemed to make it their business to be as dull and awkward as possible. Only Nasser Hussain of recent vintage has bloomed both in press conferences and dressing room. But it is the dressing room where Cook must initially stamp his personality and authority, and if he does that the rest will follow.