Sri Lanka will be aiming to wrap up their two-Test series with Bangladesh when they visit the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram for a five-day game beginning on Saturday, March 30.
The tourists took the opener in emphatic fashion, winning by 328 runs – captain Dhananjaya de Silva the star man with the bat scoring two centuries while bowlers Vishwa Fernando and Kasun Rajitha took seven and eight wickets respectively.
For Bangladesh, Mominul Haque was the lone player to notch a score over 50, with wickets shared around a respectable bowling attack.
Sri Lanka are 4/7 to complete the series sweep, with Bangladesh the 9/4 outsider and the draw 13/2. The weather is set to be hot, with plenty of cloud coverage, which could aid the seamers, but no rain is currently forecast.
The venue has hosted 23 Test matches, with Bangladesh winning just two of those fixtures – a 186-run win over Zimbabwe in 2014 and a 64-run triumph over the West Indies in 2018. Seven matches have been drawn.
Sri Lanka boast two wins in five meetings with Bangladesh at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium, with the last three games all drawn. Bangladesh are currently ranked ninth in the world Test rankings, one place below Sri Lanka.
The visitors boast the world's number seven batter in Dimuth Karunaratne – an opener who has averaged around 60 over the past two years. He also boasts five half centuries and three 100s against Bangladesh.
He has reached at least double figures in 17 consecutive innings and has an Over/Under match runs line of 64.5. He achieved that mark in the First Test (69 runs) and has done in six of his last eight matches.
With the ball, Prabath Jayasuriya is currently ranked eighth in the world. The slow left-armer has taken 67 wickets in just 11 matches, with seven five-wicket hauls and two 10-wicket matches – an incredible start to his career. He was, however, barely used in the First Test, bowling just 16 overs across the two innings.
In the Bangladesh camp, Mushfiqur Rahim (world ranked 24 batter) and Taijul Islam (world ranked 15 bowler) are the top-rated players, however, Rahim is not currently in the squad. Islam took 3-106 in 22.4 overs in the First Test, and boasts 29 wickets over his last five matches.
He is also the second leading wicket taker at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium with 47 wickets in 11 matches, just ahead of team-mate Mehidy Hasan Miraz who has 34 in eight outings.
Both could feature heavily in the spin-friendly conditions – Islam is 4/6 to take over 3.5 match wickets, a solid price as a parlay addition.
