Cricinfo
Sri Lanka will be desperately looking for ODI Super League points - they sit in the negative currently - while Bangladesh will be keen to bolster their own tally as the teams seek improvement in the ODI series starting Sunday in Dhaka.
Both sides have played very few ODIs since the 2019 World Cup too, which puts this series in sharper focus. Apart from the World Cup qualification points, the home side will look to break their ten-match winless streak across formats that followed just after they crushed West Indies 3-0 in ODIs in January. It is part of their downward trend in results, since the 2019 World Cup, when most of their wins have come against sides ranked lower than them.
Midway through this difficult year, Bangladesh will be desperate to turn things around with a busy schedule coming up. Playing at home may give them an advantage, but pitches at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium have often been slow and low for ODIs.
However, Bangladesh have been trying to catch up with the rest of the teams by looking to score faster and bigger as well as having genuinely quick bowlers in their attack. They will welcome back Shakib Al Hasan after he missed the New Zealand white-ball tour and the Tests in Sri Lanka.
The hosts will be hoping that Shakib can, once again, combine with captainTamim Iqbal, Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah to drag the out-of-form youngsters from their funk. There will be a similar role for newly appointed ODI captain KusalPerera and his deputy KusalMendis, too, with the new crop of Sri Lanka players. Fast bowler Shiran Fernando has got his maiden international call-up, while ChamikaKarunaratne and Binura Fernando - in the ODI side for the first time - have only played a Test and two T20Is, respectively.
Though Sri Lanka’s selectors have also brought in Dhananjaya de Silva and IsuruUdana, the majority of the side has relative newcomers like PathumNissanka, Ashen Bandara, Ramesh Mendis and Asitha Fernando.
They will be tasked to solve Sri Lanka’s problems with batting and bowling in the middle overs. There are also concerns about scoring in the last ten overs, which has stopped them from consistently getting 300-plus scores.
Sri Lanka will be pressed to bat deep in Dhaka where the pitch doesn’t always suit quick scoring in the first 20 overs. The visitors have also brought a relatively young pace attack and the wicket-taking will largely depend on legspinnerWaninduHasaranga, who has AkilaDananjaya for company.
