The visiting Sri Lankan cricket team will go into the two-Test series against Bangladesh knowing fully well that they could easily be challenged by the home side in their own conditions unlike in the past. Sri Lanka won all but one of their previous 14 Tests against Bangladesh with seven of their victories coming by an innings margin. However, the last two Test series that they played against the Tigers at home and away were way different than the other series.
Bangladesh managed a draw against the islanders at Galle before going down fighting in Colombo in the second Test. Their 638 at Galle, which gave them a lead over Sri Lanka, is also their highest score in Test cricket.
Bangladesh’s performance in their tour of Sri Lanka was not completely unexpected as they also proved their Test credentials against the islanders on home soil.
In their last match at home against Sri Lanka, the Tigers dared to chase a world record target of 521 runs and ended up putting on 413, their highest score in the fourth innings, which highlighted their progress in the five-day format.
‘Bangladesh [has] improved quite a lot,’ Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews said in his first press conference in Dhaka on Saturday.
‘They have improved vastly in the last few years. We are not going to take them lightly at all. We are not going to be complacent with them,’ said Matthews.
Mathews, still smarting from a stunning five-wicket defeat against Pakistan at Sharjah, insisted Sri Lanka need to press hard if they are to win the series, which is a must-win series for them in order to prevent a further slide in Test rankings.
The International Cricket Council on Saturday confirmed Sri Lanka will slip to seventh place, behind the West Indies in Test rankings if they are unable to beat Bangladesh.
‘We know it’s their home and they are very hard to beat,’ said Mathews. ‘They have improved quite a lot in the recent years. They are playing some good cricket. They have quite a few good players. We need to go hard at them,’ he added.
Mathews, who played Bangladesh on many occasions since he was Sri Lanka’s Under-19 captain, added that the familiarity with the conditions will favour his side.
‘Few of the boys have played here before and they know about the pitch. Our coaching staff has been here also, they know the conditions as well [so] we’ll get a lot of information. We had our first day of training today [Saturday] and it was pretty good,’ he said.
-With New Age input
