Sri Lanka arrive in Dhaka ahead of ODI series against Bangladesh

Sri Lanka cricket team arrived in Dhaka on Sunday to play a three-match ODI series against Bangladesh which is due to begin on May 23. The visitors landed in Dhaka at 8.15 am and straightaway headed to Hotel Sonargaon where they will undergo a mandatory quarantine. 

Chief physician of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) Dr. Debashish Chowdhury, on the quarantine protocols, said, "Sri Lanka players and stuff will have to undergo as many as four Covid-19 tests while in quarantine. The results of the tests carried out on May 22 will determine who will be eligible to play and who won't. Before that, the teams will play intra-squad warm-up matches."

Sri Lanka will have to undergo a seven-day quarantine and they won't be able to step out of the rooms for the first three days. They will be screened twice in the first three days. Those who will test negative for Covid-19 can start practising at the Mirpur Academy Ground from May 19.

But the visitors will be allowed to train in small groups in the latter part of the quarantine. At the end of the mandatory quarantine, the Sri Lanka players will be allowed to practice as a team upon testing negative. Sri Lanka will play a 50-over warm-up match among themselves at BKSP on May 21. They will lock horns with Bangladesh in the first ODI at Sher-E-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur on May 23.

The Kusal Perera-led side will play two more ODIs on the same venue on May 25 and 28. All the matches will be part of the ODI Super League. The visitors will fly back home on May 29. 

Sri Lanka are going to field a new-look side in the series. Dimuth Karunaratne has been relieved of captaincy duties and left out of the squad as well. Experienced campaigners in the form of Angelo Mathews and Dinesh Chandimal have been excluded too. Kusal Perera has replaced Karunaratne as captain of the ODI side.

Bangladesh, on the other hand, will return to practice on May 18. They are likely to enter the bio-secure bubble on the same day. The players called up to the preliminary squad underwent a Covid-19 screening on May 15. Two more rounds of tests will be carried out on Sunday and Monday and the cricketers will check in to the hotel based on the Covid-19 results on May 18.

Shakib Al Hasan and Mustafizur Rahman, two IPL returnees, are currently undergoing a two-week institutional quarantine and are due to join the team on May 21. The BCB though wants to have them earlier than that and is trying to reduce their quarantine period.

Sri Lanka squad for Bangladesh ODIs: Kusal Perera (C), Kusal Mendis (VC), Danushka Gunathilaka, Dhananjaya De Silva, Pathum Nissanka, Dasun Shanaka, Ashen Bandara, Wanindu Hasaranga, Isuru Udana, Akila Dananjaya, Niroshan Dickwella, Dushmantha Chameera, Ramesh Mendis, Asitha Fernando, Lakshan Sandakan, Chamika Karunaratne, Binura Fernando, Shiran Fernando.