Internet Desk: The Men in Blue would like to end their successful Sri Lanka tour on a high note when they face a depleted Lankan side in the one-off T-20 International on Wednesday at Colombo. There is a high chance that Virat Kohli & Co. would win this encounter with an ease after they whitewashed the hosts 3-0 and 5-0 respectively in the Test and ODI series.
This match would be a good practice for the Indian Men’s team as they will face Australia and New Zealand at home during their upcoming home series. The Indian cricket team would play nine T-20Is in this home season and all the series will be a three-match rubber.
Rohit Sharma might open the innings with Ajinkya Rahane in the absence of Shikhar Dhawan. On the other hand 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.
Hardik Pandya was rested for that fifth match on Sunday, and he too is expected to return to the playing eleven. Pandya hadn’t featured in India’s last T20I against the West Indies, with Kohli opting for five full-time bowlers back in July. His return to the playing eleven could allow for a bowling combination similar to the ODIs, with four full-time options to choose from.
Jasprit Bumrah is a shoe-in of course, whilst it remains to be seen if Shardul Thakur will get another go after proving expensive in the last match at Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s expense. Kohli does like to field leg-spinners in the shortest format, and he played both Yuzvendra Chahal and Amit Mishra against England at both Nagpur and Bengaluru. He is expected to repeat this trick with Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav this time around.
Even so, there were no sure hints coming forth as the Indian team enjoyed an additional off day ahead of the game and did not practice.
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. Vandersay had made an impression for Sri Lanka in the World T20 last year, but suffered from injury issues since and hasn’t been a regular feature of the side.
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.
Tharanga was suspended during this 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 cricket and was omitted from Lankas preliminary squad announced on Monday for the Pakistan series.
This is being as a sign that he wants to concentrate on the limited-overs formats and a bid to overturn Sri Lankas fortunes in ODIs and T20s at least.
As per the ICC rankings, the gap between the two sides is smaller (ranked no.5 and 8) for once, and the task is cut out for Tharanga to showcase what he can do in this one-off game.