India will look to sign off Sri Lanka tour on a high
colombo — India would aim to cap off their super successful Sri Lanka tour with another ruthless victory in the one-off T20 International on Wednesday.
Any other result than India’s resounding win looks highly unlikely tomorrow, considering the visitors’ rampaging run in the preceding Test and ODI series, where they whitewashed the hosts 3-0 and 5-0 respectively.
The game provides India an opportunity to fine-tune team combination ahead of the upcoming T20 home series against Australia and New Zealand. In total, India would play nine T20 Internationals this home season and all contests will be a three-match series.
India are on an experimentation drive ahead of the 2019 50-over World Cup and one name they could have tried here is Rishabh Pant, who was not named in the squad.
It is all the more surprising since the selectors had an opportunity to send him for this stand-alone game when Shikhar Dhawan returned home to tend to his ailing mother this past weekend, leaving Ajinkya Rahane to open the innings in the fifth ODI.
Pant has previously featured in two T20Is against England and West Indies, but was kept out of this tour on account of his poor run for India-A in South Africa, as stated by chief selector MSK Prasad after the team selection.
In the lone T20 against West Indies at Jamaica, Virat Kohli had opened the innings with Dhawan with Pant slotted in at no.3. As such, their dual absence will necessitate atleast a couple changes from the Indian skipper.
Rohit Sharma slots back in automatically, for he didn t travel to the Caribbean earlier whilst KL Rahul and Manish Pandey will be expected to bring up the middle order.
Kedar Jadhav scored a much needed half-century in the final ODI, and he could be afforded another chance to prove his credentials as India prepare for a long limited-overs schedule at home.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka have made a few changes to their original T20 squad after suffering the 5-0 whitewash. Leg spinner Jeffrey Vandersay and seam-bowling all-rounder Dasun Shanaka are prominent additions.
Pacer Suranga Lakmal makes a comeback after injury, as he had been ruled out ahead of the second Test in August. Mystery spinner Akila Dananjay has also been added to the squad.
Surprisingly, left-arm leg spinner Lakshan Sandakan has been left out of the squad.
Pacers Vishwa Fernando and Dushmantha Chameera have also been left out after unimpressive showings in the recently concluded ODI series. Lasith Malinga has been picked again, however.
The Lankan team management had talked about resting Kusal Mendis as he was fatigued, and he has been duly left out.
The spotlight will be on skipper Upul Tharanga though.
This will be his first T20 match in-charge after Angelo Mathews gave up captaincy post the loss to Zimbabwe prior to the Indian tour.
Tharanga was suspended during the ODI series due to poor run-rate, but refused to step down after the ODI defeat. Instead, he has taken a six-month sabbatical from Test s and was omitted from Lanka’s preliminary squad announced on Monday for the Pakistan series.