Bangladesh will start their Asia Cup journey with a group match against Sri Lanka on the opening day of the tournament. Their all-rounder Mahmudullah Riyad will undoubtedly like to look back at the last meeting of these two teams in the Nidahas Trophy and repeat his heroics once again on this Saturday (September 15).

The 32-year-old had gone all guns blazing to eliminate the hosts from the Nidahas Trophy with a quick-fire innings of 43 runs from just 18 deliveries and steered the team to victory by hitting an over-boundary off the penultimate ball. Although the Tigers failed to win the final match against India, that particular win against Sri Lanka proved to be very crucial for the team's revival, especially after a set of disappointing performances that they put up earlier this year.

Sri Lanka will go into their first match at the Asia Cup licking the wounds of a recent home-series defeat against South Africa, in this format, while a confident Bangladesh will try to perform with the similar mindset that helped them win their last ODI series in the West Indies.

However, Mahmudullah thinks that they will have to fire on all cylinders to beat Sri Lanka this time.

He said: “I think we have got some good past memories against Sri Lanka from a few months back, but Sri Lanka is a very good team, and they are playing very good cricket and we have to be at our best to beat them. We have been preparing quite well back at home. So hopefully we can deliver.”

Speaking of records, Mahmudullah said that he will try to set new records if possible. He wants to maintain his simple style of play while planning his game on a match-by-match basis.