Rahim relishes chances against Sri Lanka

DHAKA: Bangladesh Test captain Mushfiqur Rahim believes his team has “a good chance” of an upset victory against Sri Lanka given the island nation’s current dearth of heavyweight players.

A 16-member squad will leave on Monday (today) to play two Tests against the Sri Lankans — one in Galle on March 7-11 and another in Colombo, which starts on March 15 and will be Bangladesh’s 100th Test.

The teams are also scheduled to play three 50-over One-day Internationals (ODIs) before facing off for two Twenty20 Internationals at the tail-end of the tour, which wraps up on April 6.

Sri Lanka have a good record at home, beating Australia 3-0 in the last series they hosted in August 2016.

But the team will be without some of its star players during the Bangladesh tour following the retirements of Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, Tillakaratne Dilshan and Muttiah Muralitharan.

Sangakkara, Jayawardene and Dilshan are the only players to have scored more than 1,000 Test runs against Bangladesh while off-spinner Muralitharan claimed 89 wickets in 11 Tests.