Asia Cup : Bangladesh elect to bat

Bangladesh won the toss and chose to bat first in their opening match of the Asia Cup against the hosts Sri Lanka. Today (Thursday) the match will start at 3:30 pm Bangladesh time at Pallekele Stadium in Kandy.

Last-minute call-up Enamul Haque Vijay was left out of the playing XI as Liton Das was ruled out due to viral fever. The debut is for left-handed opener Tanjid Hasan Tamim. The team has three pacers Taskin, Shariful and Mostafiz along with captain Shakib as spinner and Miraj and Mehdi.

Sri Lanka is perhaps the biggest opponent of the Bangladesh team in recent times. The cricket ability of the two countries is almost equal. After a one-sided fight, now the Tigers' fight against the Lankans is even. This is the first match between the two teams in this year's Asia Cup.

Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have met 15 times in the Asia Cup so far. Sri Lanka won 12 of them. But Bangladesh has won three of the last five matches of the two teams in the Asia Cup. Apart from this, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have faced each other 51 times in ODI format so far. Among them, Lankans won 40 matches and Bangladesh won 9 matches. The remaining two matches were abandoned.

Bangladesh XI
Shakib Al Hasan (captain), Mohammad Naeem, Tanjid Hasan Tamim, Nazmul Hossain Shanto, Tawhid Hriday, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mehdi Hasan Miraj, Sheikh Mehdi Hasan, Taskin Ahmed, Shariful Islam and Mostafizur Rahman.

Sri Lanka XI
Dasun Shanaka (captain), Pathum Nisanka, Dimuth Karunaratne, Kushal Mendis (wicketkeeper), Sadira Samarawickrama, Charith Asalanka, Dhananjaya de Silva, Dunith Wellalage, Mahesh Thikshana, Kasun Rajitha and Mathisha Pathirana.

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