Tigers to foil Malinga’s party?

Bangladesh will play their first competitive match following the World Cup when they take on Sri Lanka in the first of a three-match ODI series at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo at 3:00pm Bangladesh Time today. All three ODIs are set to be day-night affairs and Bangladesh will be looking to get back to winning ways following a dismal World Cup campaign, where hopes were ignited at the beginning of the tournament but flickered into nothingness by the end.

The Tigers are playing the series without inspirational ODI captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza and their best performer in the World Cup, Shakib Al Hasan. While Shakib had asked for a leave of absence from the tour, it was Mashrafe being ruled out that poured cold water on the proceedings. The skipper suffered a hamstring injury on the eve of the Tigers’ departure for Sri Lanka and opener Tamim Iqbal was subsequently named captain for the tour.

Mohammad Saifuddin then fell prey to injury as well and on the same day as Mashrafe no less, which made way for Forhad Reza and Taskin Ahmed as late replacements but Shafiul Islam was also added to the squad later on.

Today, all eyes will be on Sri Lanka’s Lasith Malinga, who is set to play in his last ODI match for Sri Lanka after a career spanning over 15 years. The Lankans would love to send their hero off with a big win while Tamim will certainly hope to lead his team to victory.