Dhaka, June 17 -- After an inauspicious start, captain Najmul Hossain Shanto and Mushfiqur Rahim have steadied a wobbling Bangladesh top order.

By the 17th over on Tuesday, the Tigers were down to 45-3 as Tharindu Rathnayake (2-52) and Asitha Fernando (1-12) rattled the batsmen.

But Shanto (25*) and Mushfiqur (20*) - two of the team's veterans - were able to fend off the blow to take Bangladesh to 90-3 at lunch on the first day at Galle.

The Tigers won the toss and chose to bat in their first match of the fresh round of the World Test Championships 2025-2027.

Bangladesh did not win a single match in the first iteration of the Test tournament. In the second they won one match but remained at the bottom of the standings. But in the 2023...