Hamilton Masakadza lost his third toss of the series, and Zimbabwe were asked to bat first in the dead rubber in Chittagong. Bangladesh took an unassailable lead with victories in two one-sided games, and with the series in the bag they handed an ODI debut to allrounder Ariful Haque.
Fazle Mahmud paid the price for two ducks in the first two games and sat this one out, and Soumya Sarkar was drafted in his place. Soumya was clearly in the selectors' thinking after his late inclusion in the squad for this game, and he has the confidence of a century in the warm-up game to carry him. Bangladesh also decided to rest Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Mustafizur Rahman, with Ariful coming in to the lower middle order and left-arm quick Abu Hider called in to do a job with the ball.
Zimbabwe also made changes to their XI, swapping legspinner Brandon Mavuta and seamer Tendai Chatara for left-arm spinner Wellington Masakadza and 20-year-old left-arm fast bowler Richard Ngarava.
The pitch for the third match looked virtually identical to that used on Wednesday, and Zimbabwe's first job will be to post a defendable total in conditions that suited the side chasing in that game. While that presents a challenge in itself, possibly more onerous will be the task of bowling under lights later. It is still early winter in Bangladesh, but dew meant that they had significant trouble controlling the wet ball last time around, conceding 11 extras. The moist outfield also meant the spinners had a tough time gripping the ball, reports espncricinfo.
The Bangladesh squad: 1 Imrul Kayes, 2 Liton Das, 3 Soumya Sarkar, 4 Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), 5 Mahmudullah, 6 Mohammad Mithun, 7 Mohammad Saifuddin, 8 Ariful Haque, 9 Mashrafe Mortaza, 10 Abu Hider, 11 Nazmul Islam.
The Zimbabwe squad: 1 Hamilton Masakadza, 2 Cephas Zhuwao, 3 Brendan Taylor (wk), 4 Sean Williams, 5 Sikandar Raza, 6 Peter Moor, 7 Elton Chigumbura, 8 Donald Tiripano, 9 Wellington Masakadza, 10 Kyle Jarvis, 11 Richard Ngarava.