Bangladesh chose to bowl at the SSC, on a track that retained a thin covering of grass. Captain Mashrafe Mortaza opted to do so, despite the trend of teams batting first having scored more than 300 in the two matches so far in the series.
The visitors went in with an unchanged side, selecting the same XI that won them the first match in Dambulla. Sri Lanka, however, swapped fast bowler Nuwan Pradeep for spin-bowling allrounder Seekkuge Prasanna, who will be playing his first match in the series.
Though the weather was fine at the toss, thunderstorms in the afternoon are likely.
Sri Lanka: 1 Upul Tharanga (capt), 2 Danushka Gunathilaka, 3 Kusal Mendis, 4 Dinesh Chandimal (wk), 5 Asela Gunaratne, 6 Milinda Siriwardana, 7 Thisara Perera, 8 Sachith Pathirana, 9 Dilruwan Perera, 10 Nuwan Kulasekara, 11 Suranga Lakmal
Bangladesh: 1 Tamim Iqbal, 2 Soumya Sarkar, 3 Sabbir Rahman, 4 Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), 5 Shakib Al Hasan, 6 Mosaddek Hossain, 7 Mahmudullah, 8 Mehedi Hasan, 9 Mashrafe Mortaza (capt), 10 Mustafizur Rahman, 11 Taskin Ahmed