Bangladesh v Sri Lanka Preview, Match 18, Melbourne

Bangladesh suffered a bit of a distraction in the lead-up when Al-Amin Hossain, the paceman, was sent home after breaching team rules, and Shafiul Islam was named his replacement. Sri Lanka, meanwhile, will be without Jeevan Mendis, the allrounder, for the rest of the campaign after he suffered a hamstring injury during training.

Bangladesh must be itching to stay where it is on the points table and Sri Lanka will be desperate to go past it. These are crucial clashes in terms of the quarter-final positions and with sterner tests to come, both teams know a win on Thursday is imperative.

Teams (from)Sri Lanka: Tillakaratne Dilshan, Lahiru Thirimanne, Kumar Sangakkara (wk), Mahela Jayawardene, Dimuth Karunaratne, Angelo Mathews (capt), Rangana Herath, Lasith Malinga, Suranga Lakmal, Dushmantha Chameera, Dinesh Chandimal, Nuwan Kulasekara, Thisara Perera, Sachithra Senanayake.

Bangladesh: Mashrafe Mortaza (capt), Anamul Haque, Arafat Sunny, Mahmudullah, Mominul Haque, Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Nasir Hossain, Rubel Hossain, Sabbir Rahman, Shafiul Islam, Shakib Al Hasan, Soumya Sarkar, Tajiul Islam, Tamim Iqbal, Taskin Ahmed.