Chandika Hathurusinghe expects his young Bangladesh players to pounce on the experienced Sri Lankans in the first Test, starting in Sylhet on Friday.

“We understand that Sri Lanka has an experienced batting line-up,” Hathurusinghe said, referring to the fact that Angelo Mathews (107), Dimuth Karunaratne (89) and Dinesh Chandimal (77) have played more Tests – 273 – than the entire Bangladesh side – 270.

“They are a formidable side. Couple of the guys [only Mathews] maybe have over 100 Tests, but we are up to the challenge. The mood in our camp is good. We have a lot of new faces. We have different teams in red- and white-ball cricket. The new boys are bringing a lot of energy and enthusiasm.”

Hathurusinghe sounded wary of the slight green tinge on the Sylhet pitch. Bangladesh did beat New Zealand in Sylhet in a Test last November, the drawn series giving them 12 points, while Sri Lanka are yet to open their account in the World Test Championship.

“The pitch is a little bit different. The last one [against New Zealand] was bare without much grass. This one has a tinge of green grass,” Hathurusinghe said. “Weather will be a factor in this game. Taking all that into consideration and the opposition’s limitation and our strength, this is going to be a bigger challenge than the New Zealand series. We have to play our best game to beat Sri Lanka.”

Bangladesh were dealt a blow before the Test when Mushfiqur Rahim, their most-capped Test cricketer, was ruled out with a thumb injury.

“We are going to miss Mushy’s experience. He is in good form. It is very hard to replace this kind of experience straight away,” Hathurusinghe said. “Having said that, we are going to back our young players. [Towhid] Hridoy is coming in. We also have [Shahadat Hossain] Dipu and Shadman [Islam] in the squad. They have been with the Test team lately.

“It is an exciting time for Bangladesh cricket with so many young players. I will ask them to grab every opportunity.”

Hathurusinghe is especially keen to see Nahid Rana and Musfik Hasan, the two uncapped fast bowlers in the side, in action.

“They are both exciting prospects for Bangladesh. They can both bowl 140-plus. They are very young, they are strong boys,” he said. “They made good starts to their first-class careers. They bowled lots of overs. I am looking forward to seeing one of them playing in this game, if not both.”

There is also going to be some spotlight on Litton Das, who was dropped from Bangladesh’s last game in the ODI series, which they won 2-1. “I expect him [Litton] to bring lot more runs in red-ball cricket. He is playing well,” Hathurusinghe said. “It is a different ball game. He will have more time to get himself in. We have no doubt about his talent. We know that he is going through a little bit of a rough patch in white-ball cricket. We hope that he will come back to form.”