Sri Lanka vs Bangladesh – 1st Test Match Preview & Prediction
THE FACTS
When is Sri Lanka vs Bangladesh taking place? Wednesday, April 21st, 2021 – 05:30 (UK)
Where is Sri Lanka vs Bangladesh taking place? Pallekele International Cricket Stadium
What is the expected weather for Sri Lanka vs Bangladesh? 31c with sunshine but a risk of thunderstorms on four of the five days
What channel is Sri Lanka vs Bangladesh on? The match will not be televised live on UK television
LAST MEETING
Sri Lanka beat Bangladesh by 215 runs
THE TEAM NEWS
SRI LANKA
- Sri Lanka return to Test action buoyed by their recent performances in the Caribbean where they drew the series with the West Indies where both matches held in Antigua played out as draws in two hard-fought matches.
- The big positive from that tour was the emergence of talented young batsman Pathum Nissanka and it will be interesting to see if he keeps his place amid the return of Angelo Mathews as Nissanka appears to be competing with Dinesh Chandimal for the one remaining spot.
- First-choice spinner Lasith Embuldeniya is injured and misses out so they may decide to go back to Lahiru Kumara as an extra paceman which will mean spin duo Dhananjaya de Silva and Wanindu Hasaranga will take on more responsibility.
BANGLADESH
- Bangladesh also come off a two-match Test series against the West Indies - albeit at home - as they lost both games that were relatively close as they went down by three wickets and 17 runs in the two games.
- Similar to that series, they are without key man Shakib Al Hasan who is away in India on IPL duty as he has made himself unavailable for Test cricket and his absence with both bat and especially ball will hamper the team somewhat.
- In his absence, it just ramps up the pressure on the experienced core of Tamim Iqbal, Mominul Haque, Mushfiqur Rahim and Liton Das especially after Soumya Sarkar was somewhat controversially dropped from the side.
THE PREDICTION
Sri Lanka and Bangladesh have had some tough times in the last 18 months in this format of the game but both will come into this Test series opener targeting a positive result. The home side have the greater reason to be positive after they drew in the Caribbean while a direct measure for the tourists is their home loss to the same opponents in February. The manner of the losses were particularly concerning for Bangladesh and all does not seem well in the camp recently. Sri Lanka have more reason for optimism and while they are missing Embuldeniya, they have all their key players available with Angelo Mathews returning. Confidence is relatively strong and with the weather looking reasonable enough even if there is the odd interruption, they are favoured to get the win.
