Asian clash to decide which team is more equipped in tournament

The two Asian teams — Bangladesh and Sri Lanka — are set to clash against each other at the Bristol Cricket ground on June 11, the 16th fixture of the ongoing ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup. Both the teams will eye on gaining momentum after a couple of setbacks.

The Bangla tigers started on a high with a big win against the heavyweight Proteas but the next couple of games didn’t go in their favour. They set a target of 245 for New Zealand and even scalped 8 wickets during Black Caps’ chase. In fact, at one point they almost got to the other side of the line. However, the Kiwis were able to outclass Bangladesh in the end. In their next outing, they were totally thrashed by the hosts barring Shakib Al Hasan’s brilliant hundred(121 off 119). Till now, Shakib Al Hasan has been the top performer of the World Cup and has also fetched the highest number of fantasy points.

On the other hand, Sri Lanka might be sitting higher on the points table because the free point from the washed out game, but it’s hard to tell if they’re fully equipped to overhaul a more confident Bangladesh. They have won 1 out of three games, the one against Afghanistan in which they struggled to bowl the Afghans out but then Nuwan Pradeep came to the rescue. He came in as the X-factor of the Lankan side and bagged 4/31 in his excellent spell. So that brings us to another unfortunate news for Dimuth Karunaratne and co. as their X-factor has been ruled out of their match against Bangladesh after he suffered a hard blow to his bowling hand at training on Sunday. SLC revealed that he was taken to the hospital where it was reported that there’s “a dislocation and a cut in his small finger on his bowling arm,” and “he will need a week’s time to recover from the injury”.

The Bangladesh vs Sri Lanka fixture will begin at 3 pm IST, with the toss scheduled at 2.30 pm IST.

Toss Prediction

Bangladesh have batted first in the first two games and put considerable pressure on the teams batting second. In their third game, England bowled them out easily in the 2nd innings. So it’s clear Bangladesh have an advantage batting first. On the other hand, Sri Lanka batted first in both games but lost one and emerged victorious in the other. Their third fixture was against Pakistan on the Bristol County Ground itself which was watched out.

The pitch usually favours the batsmen, going by the average first innings score of 297 in the last three games, but looking at the overcast conditions it’s difficult to tell whether batting would be the best option.

Bangladesh

The Bangladesh team have shown character even in their defeats and captain Mashrafe Mortaza is expected to carry on with the same team. No changes.

Predicted XI: Tamim Iqbal, Soumya Sarkar, Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mohammad Mithun, Mahmudullah, Mosaddek Hossain, Mohammad Saifuddin, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Mashrafe Mortaza (C), Mustafizur Rahman.

Sri Lanka

Kasun Rajitha, the 26-year-old right-arm pacer who has been travelling with the squad as a standby player, is named as the replacement for the injured Nuwan Pradeep.

Predicted XI: Dimuth Karunaratne (C), Kusal Perera (WK), Lahiru Thirimanne, Kusal Mendis, Angelo Mathews, Dhananjaya de Silva, Thisara Perera, Jeevan Mendis, Isuru Udana, Suranga Lakmal, Lasith Malinga.