Bangladesh will be keen to clinch their successive ODI series victory over Sri Lanka when they take on the visitors in the second game of the three-match series at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram today.
The match will start at 02.30pm (BST) and will be telecast live on Gazi TV and T Sports.
Bangladesh are currently leading the series by a 1-0 margin after they defeated the tourists by six wickets in the opening game.
Now, a win in the second game will confirm their second straight ODI series victory against the Lankans on home soil, having previously won the last series between the two sides by a 2-1 margin in 2021.
Bangladesh will be also keen to see their batting unit shine the way they did in the opening game with skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto making an unbeaten 122 runs with Mushfiqur Rahim giving him company with an undefeated 73-run that saw them put up an unbroken 165 runs for the fifth wicket.
Bangladesh’s new batting coach David Hemp is also expecting a similar kind of approach from his batting unit as they get ready for the series-deciding game.
“Something that we’ve talked about a lot of the last couple of weeks coming into this series, both the T20 and the ODI series, was about getting the job done. So, if you get yourself in, then finish the job. So, it’s simple,” said Hemp.
“I think for us it’s just about what we talked about as a batting group is trusting in yourself and playing to your strengths.
“I’d say going back to trust in your game and your strengths. But that is about scoring runs. So, we have to score runs, but it’s finding the best way to score runs at a particular moment in time and just keeping ourselves honest around that.
“As long as we do that, then I think we’ll be moving forward,” he said, after the optional training session that was attended by a couple of Bangladeshi cricketers that included Tawhid Hridoy and Soumya Sarkar, who were part of the playing XI in the opening game.
Meanwhile, both Bangladesh and Sri Lanka will be hoping that dew does not play an impact like the way it did in the opening game.
A member of ZACS said that it was the first time they witnessed such a dew in the last seven days. Along with dew, there is also a possibility of rain according to the weather forecast.