The first match of the tri-series in Bangladesh will be played between the hosts and the Sri Lankans. India is the third team in the competition and the three teams will be involved in a two round, round-robin tournament. The top two sides at the end of the tournament will play in the finals. All the games, including this first match between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh will be played in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh will be up against a tough test playing nation after a long time. In the entire 2009, apart from playing games against Zimbabwe and the second-string West Indian side - due to their player revolt - they had played only two matches against Sri Lanka. None apart from that! So, this series at home will be a test of their ability to take on the best of the test playing nations, and it will be interesting to see whether they can carry forward their form against the other lowly sides to take on the Lankans in the first game. Out of the last 15 ODIs that the Bangladeshis have played, they have lost only two!

They will be led by their stand-in captain and world's best all-rounder according to some, Shakib-al-Hasan, as Mashrafe Mortaza has been ruled out of the series due to his long standing issues with his knee. His deputy and a reliable batsman in the middle order will be Mushfiqur Rahim and apart from the duo, the Bangladeshis will rely heavily on the left arm spinners in their side. On their home ground, the spinners like Shakib, Abdur Razzaq and Mahmudullah will prove to be handful.

And when you compare that with a side which is trying hard to rebuild after having dropped the senior pros like Sanath Jayasuriya, Lasith Malinga and even the spinning pair of Muthiah Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis, then it does look like the game could be an interesting one to look out for.

For the Lankans, there is a new breed of cricketers that will prop up both, their middle order and the bowling. The top-order will comprise of Kumar Sangakkara, Tillakaratne Dilshan and Upul Tharanga, with Thilan Samaraweera and Thilina Kandamby around, but they will need someone at the positions six and seven to do the job that Angelo Mathews (injured) was able to do in India recently.

The bowling with be in the hands of the spinning combination of Suraj Randiv and Malinga Bandara; the former had impressed on the current tour of India, whereas the latter had been out of the side for some time, but with the form and injury issues to the likes of Murali and Mendis has a great chance to grab the opportunity. Sri Lanka will go into the game as definite favourites.

Tag :- Bangladesh   Kumar Sangakkara   Mashrafe Mortaza   Sanath Jayasuriya   Sri Lanka   Suraj Randiv