Nidahas Trophy, 2018: Sri Lanka vs Bangladesh preview
The 2018 Nidahas trophy started the way Lankan fans wanted, beating a considerably weak Indian side comfortably, riding on Kusal Perera's blistering knock of 66 from 37 balls and some fine work done by Thisara Perera down the order.
On the other hand, Bangladeshi players would want to forget the loss against India and start preparing for the next match taking a little amount of positives from Thursday's loss at the Lankan capital.
After beating a second string Indian side, Sri Lanka's worry would be their Captain Dinesh Chandimal's form. Chandimal is a well-known Sri Lankan cricketer who is a regular in the Test team but is in-and-out of the limited-overs team team, owing to his inconsistent scores. The Lankan captain scored just 14 off 11 balls and couldn't keep the tempo up after a good start provided by Kusal Perera in the first six overs.
Upul Tharanga is yet another big Sri Lankan name who needs to find his form. The two men along with Thisara Perera and Dasun Shanaka form the middle order for Lanka and in the absence of Angelo Mathews, Chandimal and Tharanga need to step up and perform well in the middle overs against the Bangladeshi bowlers.
In the bowling department, Chameera and Jeevan Mendis were best of all Lankan bowlers and Akila Dhananjaya’s magic would be the thing Sri Lankan fans would love to watch.
The Emerging Asian team - Bangladesh after the loss would be low on confidence and they need their openers to start firing before it’s too late. Tamim Iqbal, arguably the best player in the line-up needs to get going if Bangladesh wants to win the game against Sri Lanka.
Bangladesh is without the likes of Shakib Al Hasan and Mashrafe Mortaza, their two most experienced men and in their absence, they need the likes of Mushfiqur Rahim and Sabbir Rahman to control the middle overs. Liton Das was probably the best batsmen the other night.
Their bowling was torn apart by the Indian batsmen in the last game where only Mehidy Hasan finished his spell with an economy rate of 5.2. Bangladesh would be needing the services of Mustafizur Rahman’s slow cutters and deadly yorkers to stand a chance against the Lankan side.