1st ODI Location: Zohur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium, Chattogram
1st ODI Date: Wednesday, March 13
History
Sri Lanka is in the middle of an all-format cricket tour of Bangladesh. This March and April tour will see the two Indian subcontinent countries face off in three T20Is, three ODIs, and two traditional Test matches.
The ODIs begin on Wednesday and make up the tour’s second leg. The first leg was the three ODIs played at the beginning of March, and those white-ball matches give us some idea of how the ODIs might play out.
The first T20I was a tight, high-scoring affair. The 409 runs scored in the most are the highest ever in a match of that type in Bangladesh, but the hosts ended up on the wrong side of a thriller as Sri Lanka won by just three runs.
The second was not close – Bangladesh won by eight wickets – while the third went to Sri Lanka by 28 runs. Interestingly, Bangladesh won the toss all three times and elected to field on all occasions. This obviously did not work out, with them failing to run down the tourists two out of the three times.
Historically, Sri Lanka has dominated Bangladesh. They have tasted defeat to their hosts ten times in 54 matches, winning 42 times. That said, this rivalry has picked up in recent years, with Bangladesh no longer being seen as a team that is merely making up the numbers on the subcontinent.
Bangladesh
After recently losing 2-1 to a strong New Zealand team on the ODI circuit, Bangladesh is ranked eighth in the world in this format. Tanzid Hasan was exceptional in the Bangladesh Premier League, while spinner Taijul Islam is always a threat on the wickets of his home country. Expect big performances from both here.
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka failed to qualify for the Champions Trophy, and we are still three whole years away from the next ODI World Cup. It would be easy for players to focus on just the T20I scene – that World Cup is in June – but Sri Lanka head coach Chris Silverwood is taking this leg of the bilateral series just as seriously as the set of T20Is that was just completed.
Kamindu Mendis is in the ODI squad for the first time since 2022 as he continues to push for a place in the short-form World Cup.
Best Bets
This rivalry has become feisty in recent years. Two of the three T20Is saw some conflict/provocation, with Sri Lanka posing with the series trophy and making the same hand gesture that Bangladesh’s Shoriful Islam made after taking a wicket in the tour’s opening game.
Keeping it spicy is good for the two squads playing in the long shadows of India and Pakistan. I expect this to be another close series, one with some controversy. Take the hosts to draw first blood and tune in for a show on Wednesday.
