Bangladesh vs. Sri Lanka, Asia Cup: Date, Time, Live Stream, TV Info, Preview

The Asia Cup fixtures continue to come thick and fast as teams keep one eye on the World T20, which begins in little over a week.

Date: Sunday, 28 February

Time: 7:30 p.m. local/1:30 p.m. GMT

Venue: Shere Bangla National Stadium, Dhaka

Live Stream and TV Info: Star Sports (India), Geo Super, PTV Sports (Pakistan), MTV Sports (Sri Lanka), Channel 9 (Bangladesh), Willow TV (USA), SuperSport (South Africa)

Weather:  There is always the risk of a thunderstorm in the afternoon at this time of the year, but according to AccuWeather.com, the bad weather should not carry over into the evening.

Overview

The new-look Asia Cup is very much a blink-and-you'll-miss-it affair. Bangladesh have already played two matches, and while it's not quite crunch time yet, they need a confidence-boosting win over Sri Lanka to keep believing they can clinch the title.

Against both India and the United Arab Emirates, Bangladesh were unconvincing. In their 45-run defeat to India, Bangladesh's batsmen disappointed and that didn't change against the UAE.

Against an inexperienced bowling attack, which they should have dispatched for plenty of runs, Bangladesh struggled and posted just 133. Their bowlers were more impressive, though, skittling the UAE out for just 82. But those runs came off 17.4 overs, an impressively long time to hang on.

It is disappointing mainly because, since last year’s 50-over World Cup, Bangladesh had turned a corner in the one-day format, and to see that progress fail to translate into the shortest format of the game is frustrating.

Sri Lanka, meanwhile, have just a squeaky 14-run win against the UAE to show for their efforts in the Asia Cup thus far. Like Bangladesh, they struggled against the UAE bowlers, managing just 129-8 in their 20 overs when the two sides met. Lasith Malinga's four-for and Nuwan Kulasekara's three for 10 rescued them, though, as the UAE hung on for 20 overs and managed 115 runs.

With this in mind, we're surely in for a tasty contest when Bangladesh and Sri Lanka meet in the Asia Cup. As hosts and having played an extra fixture, Bangladesh have to consider themselves favourites. Neither side is likely to fiddle too much with a match-winning combination unless serious injury forces them to do so.

The two sides have played each other four times in T20s with Sri Lanka winning all four, but Bangladesh have to believe they can change all of that.

Key players

Bangladesh

Mahmudullah was the game changer in Bangladesh's second fixture with an unbeaten 36 off 27 with 18 of those runs coming off the last seven balls as he tried to pull his team back from being 115-7. He also chipped in with bowling figures of 2-0-5-2, and the hosts will be hoping he can produce more magic against tough opposition.

Sri Lanka

Despite being defending World T20 champions, Sri Lanka haven't set the world alight in the format since that victory.

Tillakaratne Dilshan has scored more runs than anyone else for Sri Lanka the format in the last two years. He has 329 runs in 18 matches at an average of 19.35, but those numbers aren't exactly awe-inspiring. Still, he is one of the most experienced campaigners, and Sri Lanka will hope he can bring some calm to the top of the order.

Squads

Bangladesh: Mashrafe Mortaza (captain), Shakib Al Hasan, Imrul Kayes, Mohammad Mithun, Mahmudullah, Mushfiqur Rahim, Soumya Sarkar, Sabbir Rahman, Nasir Hossain, Mustafizur Rahman, Al-Amin Hossain, Taskin Ahmed, Arafat Sunny, Abu Hider, Nurul Hasan

Sri Lanka: Lasith Malinga (captain), Angelo Mathews, Dinesh Chandimal (wk), Tillakaratne Dilshan, Niroshan Dickwella, Shehan Jayasuriya, Milinda Siriwardana, Dasun Shanaka, Chamara Kapugedera, Nuwan Kulasekara, Dushmantha Chameera, Thisara Perera, Sachithra Senanayake, Rangana Herath, Jeffrey Vandersay