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One down, four to go

Sakeb Subhan
A continued focus on Chandika Hathurusingha's presence in the Sri Lanka camp may discomfit
those who want to leave his time with Bangladesh in the past, but it will be hard to escape the role the former Bangladesh coach plays, wittingly and unwittingly, in the current series between the two sides. Hathurusingha's history with Bangladesh - a successful three-year tenure which ended in a sudden pre-contract-expiry resignation midway through a disastrous South Africa tour in October 2017 - has had and will continue to have a bearing but if the preceding tri-series is considered, Bangladesh will do well to limit that influence.
In yesterday's end-of-day score of 374 for four by Bangladesh there are echoes of their first tri-series meeting with Sri Lanka, when they romped to their largest ODI victory in terms of runs and it seemed that they had overcome the challenge of having someone with intimate knowledge of their abilities and tactical wherewithal in the opposition camp. In that match, they seemed to have anticipated some of Hathurusingha's tactics - namely the bouncer strategy - and came out on top.
After the first day of the first Test Bangladesh are well and truly on top. Mominul Haque's resplendent unbeaten 175 promises more riches today. So far they have done their homework and have thwarted Sri Lanka's plans by playing positively against the spinners and taking their bete noir Rangana Herath for 100 runs in 20 wicketless overs.
Going back to the tri-series, after that first match the Tigers seemed to go against ODI skipper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza's pre-series words of playing 'smart cricket, but not being over-smart’ as they lost the next two matches against Sri Lanka, including the final, by embarrassing margins.
In those defeats, particularly in the final when they collapsed in a heap in chase of a moderate 222 when experienced campaigners like Tamim Iqbal and Mushfiqur Rahim were out playingunnecessaryshots, Bangladesh had moved away from their smart-cricket mantra and seemed intent on twisting the knife into the wound when a clean
kill would have sufficed. A bit of emotion seemed to have crept in and instead of playing the opposition like they did in the first match, it appeared that they were trying to make a statement aimed at their former coach.
There is doubtlessly a bit of needle between the Tigers and their former coach, evidenced by Hathurusingha's wry smile when asked before the first Test about the six spinners in the Bangladesh Test squad and in the usually reserved Mominul's fierce and pointed celebration upon reaching his century yesterday.
The following four days will not just be a test of how the home side fare without the talismanic Shakib Al Hasan, whose injury in the tri-series final handed Sri Lanka even more momentum than they had mustered by winning the tournament, but it will also test if they learned their lessons from the tri-series debacle.
Unlike in the GDIs where Bangladesh were the higher-ranked team, Sri Lanka are the better side in the Tests, which means Bangladesh have to be on guard even more and, having laid the foundation, continue playing the opposition and not their coach.