Sri Lanka Bangladesh Test Series series preview

In the midst of high profile series' of England and New Zealand, Australia and India, this test series has flow under the radar somewhat. Despite the limited media coverage there has been no shortage of controversy and big news. Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has been locked in a contract dispute with up to 20-30 top players. There were grave fears that Sri Lanka may have been forced to field a second string side reminiscent of West Indies in their series against Bangladesh in 2009. As well as this, Thilan Samaweera has retired after being left out of Sri Lanka's squad. He played 81 test matches and scored 5462 runs with an average of 48.76. He's been a great servant of Sri Lankan cricket over the years and he will be remembered for his bravery coming back from the attacks on the team bus in Pakistan.

Meanwhile back to the series both teams are suffering major injuries. For Sri Lanka Mahela Jayawardene and Nuwan Pradeep are both unavailable, but in better news Kumar Sangakkara has returned after fracturing a finger in the Boxing Day Test last year courtesy of Mitchell Johnson. Angelo Matthews will be captaining now and it will be interesting to see how he fares.

Bangladesh though have bigger omissions with World no.1 ranked all-rounder Shakib al Hasan needing surgery on his calf. His absence will leave a gigantic hole in the Bangladesh team. He is to Bangladesh what Michael Clarke is to Australia. With this spinner Enamul Haque jnr and Naeem Islam were also both ruled out with injuries. On top of this Shahriar Nafees has been ruled out due to a hand injury. Flamboyant opener Tamim Iqbal is also in doubt for the first test. Bangladesh struggle with depth on a normal day so these numerous injuries will severely test him. Mohammad Ashraful returns again to the national side for the umpteenth time. Let's be honest here, despite his potential shown as a youngster he is now 28. He has batted 111 times in tests for a pitiful average of 22.60. In First Class cricket he only averages a touch better with 28. He has scored some runs in domestic cricket recently, but his repetitive failures over the last 5-6 years at international level should mean a permanent line is put through his name.

In regards to both teams' recent test form Sri Lanka is coming off the back of a 0-3 drubbing by Australia. The real concern though was there 1-1 drawn series with New Zealand in their own home conditions. Bangladesh played West Indies in November 2012 and lost 0-2, but were incredibly close to pulling off an upset win the first match. In bilateral matches against each other Bangladesh have a terrible record against the Sri Lankans. They have played 12 test matches against each other and Sri Lanka have won all 12 of them. That is Sri Lanka 12, draws 0 and Bangladesh 0. This is undoubtedly Bangladesh's worst record against another country. Of these 12 wins 7 have been by an innings, and the closest margin has been 107 runs. Bangladesh will be looking to rectify this in this test tour, and its interesting to note that their board has introduced bonuses for players for drawing tests. That really shows just where Bangladesh is at with their test cricket.

Sri Lanka are 6th in the rankings, while Bangladesh languish in 9th with 0 rating points. They will be hoping for even a draw on this tour so they can get some points. Sri Lanka will only pick up 1 point for a 2-0 series win. They will have to be careful though as they are only 1 point above the West Indies in 7th, so any slight slip-up could be costly.

In this short two match series I really don't expect Bangladesh to put up too much of a challenge. They have been hurt by injuries to key players and the combination of an inexperienced batting line-up and very weak pace bowling will leave them vulnerable. Sri Lanka should be able to post a comfortable 2-0 series cleansweep.

Squads:
Sri Lanka: A.Matthews (c), Chandimal (vc), Dilshan, Eranga, Herath, Karunaratne, Kaushal, Kulasekara, Lakmal, Mendis, Perera, Sangakkara, Thirimanne, Vithanage, Welegedera

Bangladesh: M.Rahim (c), Mahmudullah (vc), A.Hasan, A.Haque, E.Sunny, J.Islam, M.Ayub, M.Ashraful, M.Haque, N.Hossain, R.Islam, R.Hossain, S.Hossain, S.Gazi, T.Iqbal

Fixtures:
1st Test: 8th March - 12th March @ Galle
2nd Test: 16th March - 20th March @ Colombo