After they shared the Test series over the last few weeks Sri Lanka and Bangladesh will get the coloured clothing on for the next couple of weeks to play cricket they are more comfortable and familiar with.
That begins with a three match ODI series which gets underway on Saturday and will act as preparation for both sides ahead of the upcoming Champions Trophy which is just over two months away now.
Schedule
1st ODI: Mar 25 at Dambulla
2nd ODI: Mar 28 at Dambulla
3rd ODI: Apr 1 at Colombo
Sri Lanka
It wasn’t too long ago that Sri Lanka were one of the dominant forces in this format of the game but they have struggled in it since the retirements of the legends Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardena and they need this young crop of players to mature very quickly if they are to be a competitive entity again.
You have to go back to the end of 2015 for the last time Sri Lanka beat an established nation in a bilateral series in the 50 over format so that highlights the size of the task ahead of them in this series, a series they are heavy favourites to come out on top in although they were strong favourites in the Test series too.
Bangladesh
The improvement Bangladesh have made in this format of the game has been vast over the last couple of years and the strength of that was evident in the World Cup when they saw off England to make it into the quarter finals of the tournament despite being ranked outside the top eight at the time. That was enough to get them into the Champions Trophy.
One of the reasons why Bangladesh have emerged from the lesser ranks in this format has been the development of a better balanced bowling attack and in Mustafizur Rahman they have a genuine top class talent. They also have a deep batting line up who are used to batting under pressure now which makes them dangerous.
Head to Head
These two nations have met in six bilateral ODI series in the past with Sri Lanka winning five of those and the other one being drawn so Bangladesh will be looking to rewrite a bit more history over the next week or so.
In matches between the two in this format Sri Lanka have 33 wins to Bangladesh’s four so if history is anything to go by the home side should be good things but this looks a tighter series than that.
Betting
I am close to backing Bangladesh in this series but I can’t quite pull the trigger on them. I might back them in matches individually instead as we go along but there is one bet I like for the series which comes in the top Sri Lanka series batsman market.
Niroshan Dickwella has served me well over the last couple of months or so and I’m going to stick with him here even though he misses the first match. Loyalty has nothing to do with it though. I genuinely think the best time to bat in this series will be against the new ball and that is the flashy left hander will be doing.
We’ve seen him destroy South Africa and Australia with the bat this winter and I fancy this Bangladesh one will get a similar flogging so at 4/1 he’s my pick to lead Sri Lanka’s run scoring particularly with a major danger in Kusal Perera missing the first two games at least.
Tips
Back N.Dickwella Top Sri Lanka Series Batsman for a 2/10 stake at 5.00 with William Hill
Back him here:
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