Sri Lanka favourites in T20I series: Silverwood

Sri Lanka head coach Chris Silverwood tipped his side as favourites against Bangladesh in the three-match T20I series, starting today in Sylhet.

The visitors arrive into the contest on the back of consecutive T20I series wins at home against Zimbabwe and Afghanistan.

"Well, obviously, I'm going to say Sri Lanka are going to be the favourites," Silverwood said in yesterday's pre-match press conference.

"But listen, as I've already said, there are two good teams that will both be pushing very hard to win this series. Because we're all building up to the World Cup now, we want to start making sure that we're playing top cricket going into that. So, as I said before, I expect this to be very competitive," he added.

The Lankans won both of their bilateral T20I series in Bangladesh in 2014 and 2018. Out of the five T20Is, the only time they lost in the country against the hosts was a 23-run loss in the 2016 T20 World Cup.

All three T20Is will be played at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium, a venue where the Lankans have played only one match across all three formats. They won the second of the two-match T20I series at the venue in 2018.

The hosts have an even two-all record at the ground, with two wins against the Afghans last year, and a couple of losses against the Lankans and West Indies in 2018.