Sri Lanka and Bangladesh committed to putting past flare-ups behind them

Bangladesh captain Najimul Hossain Shanto and Sri Lanka coach Chris Silverwood both played down any narrative of personal scores being settled by the two sides over the next month.

While Sri Lanka-Bangladesh clashes in the past have occasionally boiled over, both camps, at least for now, expect little more than a competitive series played in the right spirit.

“I am not thinking about the past,” Shanto said, on the eve of the first T20I, in Sylhet. “I think it will be a good series. We are doing everything we can to win this series. I am not feeling pressure about our opponents. We are focused on what we are doing. We want to do what we can control. Every international series has pressure, and that’s also true for our opponents. Everyone is capable of handling this pressure. Like I believe that all of our five or six bowlers can be match-winners.”

Silverwood, too, said that he wanted to forget the past and focus on the future, particularly Sri Lanka’s preparation for the T20 World Cup, which begins in June.

(Cricinfo)