Jesse Ryder looks set to make his Test debut for New Zealand in the number three position.

Ryder is likely to take over the position held for many years by former Black Caps skipper Stephen Fleming in the opening Test against Bangladesh in Chittagong which starts on Friday.

Brendon McCullum batted at three during New Zealand's 2-0 series loss in England four months ago but he will drop down to five for the two-Test series leaving Ryder and Ross Taylor to play at either three or four.

Coach John Bracewell hinted Ryder's preference for facing pace made him the more likely of the two to follow openers Aaron Redmond and Jamie How.

"Jesse likes the ball coming on. He strikes the ball quite well as it skids through," explained Bracewell. "Whereas Ross is quite adept at coming in and playing spin now and is becoming increasingly more proficient at facing all types of bowling in all types of conditions and getting in.

"For ease of introduction it maybe better for Jesse to come in in the three position."

The Black Caps coach however, stopped short of saying that would be the permanent place in the order for the left-hander, particularly given Peter Fulton's recent good form with the A team in India.

"To me there's not a lot of difference between three and four and it's about what's best for the team and what is best for that individual in terms of getting them into the Test matches," Bracewell said.

"It may be a different situation when we go to Australia. Bearing in mind someone like Peter Fulton was in extremely good form and comes into contention from the A tour."

The New Zealand batsmen appear to be facing another tough assignment with the Chittagong wicket, which lies next to the one used in Tuesday's final one-day match, causing a few raised eyebrows because of the cracking.

Bracewell described the pitch as having the appearance of large dinner plates with cracks that open up with heat, can peel up at the edges and are sitting at different levels.

"It was more plated (cracked) than the one we actually played on," he added. "They absolutely flooded it last night (Tuesday) and they are trying to roll it out and flatten the plates.

"We're hoping that they can get this wicket a little bit better than it actually looks. If it plays like it looks it could be a fairly short Test match."

Given the nature of the pitch Bracewell said playing two spinners was "a given" meaning off-spinner Jeetan Patel will act in a support role to captain Daniel Vettori after taking two for 29 off his 10 overs in the third one-dayer.

"We were extremely pleased with the way Jeetan bowled (on Tuesday). I think he found the pace of the wicket very quickly after his first over and he was extremely challenging."

That leaves Tim Southee in a three-way race with Iain O'Brien and Mark Gillespie to be Kyle Mills' new ball partner, while Redmond's ability to bowl "more than useful" leg spin also gives the Black Caps another bowling option alongside medium-pacer Jacob Oram, who tops the International Cricket Council one-day all-rounder rankings after his series-winning performance with bat and ball against Bangladesh.