Big picture – Sri Lanka in sight of 13th successive win
Bangladesh need a hot day here; they have had one, but have also had two cold days. And being the team to stop Sri Lanka’s run will be a huge boost.
Bangladesh LWLWL(last five completed ODIs, most recent first)
Sri Lanka WWWWW
In the spotlight – Dasun Shanaka and Mushfiqur Rahim
Mushfiqur Rahim‘s strong form in 2023 is a bounce back after an under-par average of 23 last year. He apparently almost lost his place in the team but a move to No. 6 has helped, as he has taken on the finisher’s role. Mushfiqur has averaged 57.25 in scoring 458 runs in his last ten innings, including Bangladesh’s fastest ODI century.
Bangladesh (probable): 1 Mohammad Naim, 2 Litton Das, 3 Afif Hossain, 4 Shakib Al Hasan (capt), 5 Towhid Hridoy, 6 Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), 7 Shamim Hossain, 8 Mehidy Hasan Miraz, 9 Taskin Ahmed, 10 Shoriful Islam, 11 Hasan Mahmud
Sri Lanka will be expected to continue with the same XI that beat Afghanistan in their last group game. They have Kusal Perera, Dushan Hemantha, Binura Fernando and Pramod Madushan on the bench.
Sri Lanka (probable): 1 Pathum Nissanka, 2 Dimuth Karunaratne, 3 Kusal Mendis (wk), 4 Sadeera Samarawickrama, 5 Charith Asalanka, 6 Dhananjaya de Silva, 7 Dasun Shanaka (capt), 8 Dunith Wellalage, 9 Maheesh Theekshana, 10 Kasun Rajitha, 11 Matheesha Pathirana
The R Premadasa Stadium usually has slower and lower pitches than Pallekele. But in the last five years, the 267 at Premadasa is a higher average first-innings score in day-night ODIs than Pallekele’s 255. The forecast, worryingly, suggests that there is more than a 68% chance of rain through the day (at the time of writing this).
