Colombo: India would target to finish their Sri Lanka tour on a high with another resounding win in the only T20 game of the series here Wednesday. India earlier had beaten the hosts 3-0 in the Test series and swept the five ODIs 5-0. Another crushing victory is definitely on the cards, keeping in the mind the form of both the sides.
The T20 format is one where Sri Lanka have so far had a good season winning their three-match series against Australia and South Africa and drawing a two-game series against Bangladesh. Overall their T20 record in 2017 stands at 5-3. They would be desperate to win the game at the R Premadasa Stadium here keeping in mind, the drubbing they have received so far at the hands of the Indians.
The hosts have made a number of changes to the T20 squad, the prominent ones being the inclusion of leg-spinner Jeffrey Vandersay and bowling all-rounder dasun Shana. Mystery spinner Akila Dananjaya, who was Sri Lanka’s most penetrative bowler during the ODI series has also been added to the squad. Seamer Isuru Udana has also been named, while Dushmantha Chameera and Vishwa Fernando have been omitted for their poor showing in the ODIs.
India on the other hand will probably bring in Ajinkya Rahane with Sikhar Dhawan attending to his injured mother in New Delhi. However, there is a possibility that Virat Kohli may open the innings like the way he did against West Indies earlier in the year. However, that is unlikely to happen as India do not have Rishabh Pant here. So the chances are that Rahane and Rohit Sharma will open the innings followed by Kohli at No. 3. Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, MS Dhoni and Hardik Pandya will comprise the middle-order.
The bowling looks settled with two pacers (Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah) and two spinners (Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav or Yuzvendra Chahal) completing the line-up.
It will definitely be a good match for India to experiment as they have nine T20 games lined up this season against Australia, New Zealand and then Sri Lanka.
