Sports Reporter :
Bangladesh Cricket team will take on Sri Lanka Cricket team in their first Test match at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium today.
The first day of the game will begin at 10:00am (Bangladesh Standard Time). Najmul Hossain Shanto will lead the Tigers as the captain, while Dhananjaya de Silva will lead Lanka as the skipper.
Shanto is the captain of Bangladesh of the all three formats (Test, ODI and T20I). Mr. Dependable Mushfiqur Rahim got injury when he was taking part in the last ODI against Sri Lanka in Chattogram on March 18. So, the Team Management of the BCB has included Towhid Hridoy as the replacement of Mushfiqur Rahim.
Private satellite sports channel T Sports, private satellite channel GTV will telecast the clash live.
Before this Test match, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka faced each other in 24 Test matches.
Of them, Sri Lanka registered 18 victories, while Bangladesh won one match and rest of the five matches ended in draws.
It may be mentioned that Bangladesh comparatively cannot perform well in Test matches.
The Tigers have showed a satisfactory performance in ODI format. Besides, most of the members of this Test squad of Bangladesh are promising. On the Other hand, most of the cricketers of this squad of Sri Lanka are also promising. So, it will not be easy for Sri Lanka to win this Test.
Promising pacer Mashfik Hasan or Nahid Rana may be make debut in this Test. Head Coach of Bangladesh Cricket team Chandika Hathurusingha hinted this matter at a pre-match conference in the match-venue on Thursday.
Hathurusingha said, ” We can choose 11 players and two or three pacers will be in the squad. The two pacers have bright future. Both of the two seamers can bowl above 140 kilometres speed. They are youth and also strong.
Their beginning of the career in First Class Cricket is outstanding. I am thrilled with them. I want to see that one of them will bowl in this Test.”
Hathurusingha is not worried about the conditions of Sylhet. Rather than he thinks about the strength of Sri Lanka. The Sri Lanka-born Head Coach wants that his team will beat his own country.
He said, ” Our strength and combination depend on the strength of Bangladesh team not the conditions of Sylhet. We cannot control the weather. It seems to me that the wickets is slightly different. Earlier, the wickets of Sylhet was not so grassy. But this time I watched that the wickets of Sylhet is grassy. Not only this series, the wickets of the New Zealand series was challenging. However, we are adamant to beat Sri Lanka.”
The rate of the tickets (everyday) : Green Hill Area: Taka 100, West Gallery: Taka 100, East Gallery: Taka 200, Club House : Taka 300, Grand Stand : Taka 1000.
Bangladesh Squad ( for1st Test): Najmul Hossain Shanto (Captain), Zakir Hasan, Mahmudul Hasan, Sadman Islam, Litton Das, Mominul Haque, Towhid Hridoy, Shahadat Hossain Dipu, Mehidy Hassan Miraz, Nayeem Hasan, Taijul Islam, Shoriful Islam, Khaled Ahmed, Mushfik Hasan and Nahid Rana.
Sri Lanka Test squad : Dhananjaya de Silva (Captain), Kusal Mendis(Vice-Captain), Dimuth Karunaratne, Nishan Madushka, Angelo Mathews, Dinesh Chandimal, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Kamindu Mendis, Lahiru Udara, Prabath Jayasuriya, Ramesh Mendis, Nishan Peiris, Kasun Rajitha, Vishwa Fernando, Lahiru Kumara and Chamika Gunasekara.
