Hosts start firm favourites in three-match ODI series
Dharamsala: Starting against an opposition who have whitewashed them 0-5 in the last ODI series played, the Sri Lankans know that nothing short of a miracle will help them come out on top when they face India, in the three-game fixture that starts here Sunday.
India will be without Virat Kohli, who has been rested (to get married as the social media says), but even then at home they will some team to beat under stand-in captain Rohit Sharma. Batting and bowling-wise, India have far too many aces up their sleeves in comparison to Sri Lanka and the visitors will simply have to play out of their skin to get beat the hosts.
Their job hasn’t been made easier by the appointment of Thisara Perera as captain. The skipper, who in the recent past, has not featured regularly in the playing XI of the Lankan ODI squad, now has the responsibility of not only establishing his credentials, but also to stop the 12-match losing streak his side have experienced. Difficult, considering the fact that the last time they beat India in India was way back in 2009 and their head-to-head record in this country stands at 1-8.
Even without Kohli, the Indian batting line-up looks formidable with of Rohit, MS Dhoni, Shikhar Dhawan, Kedar Jadhav and Manish Pandey in the middle. It will be the ideal opportunity for Ajinkya Rahane also to get back among runs. The Mumbaikar may have had a bad run in the Tests against Sri Lanka.
However, in the ODIs that he has played this year, Rahane got a century and three fifties against the West Indies in June-July and then blasted four half centuries on the trot against the Australians. His teammates, would certainly hope that Jinks (Rahane’s nickname) breaks the jinx of poor scores that he is going through at present.
The worry for the Indian camp, however, is that Dhawan is down with fever while Kedar Jadhav has a tender hammy.
Tamil Nadu all-rounder Washington Sundar has replaced injured Kedar Jadhav in the Indian squad for the three-match ODI series against Sri Lanka. Jadhav has been ruled out of the series due to hamstring injury.
The Indian bowling will rest in the hands of spinners Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal (one of them may play Sunday) along with Axar Patel, who is primarily being viewed as a restrictive bowler. The pace battery will be led by Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah with all-rounder Hardik Pandya donning the third seamer’s role after getting a well-deserved rest. The conditions here early on (match starts at 11.30 am because of heavy dew at night) favour swing bowling and India certainly will be looking to exploit the conditions if they win the toss.
Perera will be banking on the experience of Angelo Mathews who has been declared fit to bowl. The return of Danushka Gunathilaka and Asela Gunaratne, both of whom did not play against India in the last series, will definitely be huge boost to their batting. In bowling, Suranga Lakmal and Nuwan Pradeep will be a decent pace combination, but all said and done, on paper it doesn’t look Sri Lanka have enough firepower to trouble the Indians.
That said and done, cricket is ‘unpredictable’ and Sri Lanka will bank on this unpredictability to favour them.
Rohit to maintain basics
He has successfully led Mumbai Indians to a hat-trick of IPL titles and Rohit Sharma firmly insisted here Saturday that ‘basics of captaincy remain same’ in all forms of cricket.
Rohit has led MI to IPL triumph in 2013, 2015 and 2017 and for the first time would be leading the national team in the upcoming limited overs series against Sri Lanka.
Asked how different it will be from leading MI, the newly-appointed skipper said: “It will be completely a different ball game all together but the process and basics of captaincy will remain the same. It will be all about going there and executing and making everyone comfortable.
By his own admission, Rohit won’t change the template of his captaincy which has got him success over the years in IPL. “I don’t need to change anything. I just need to carry from where we left as a team and yes IPL and international cricket is completely different, the pressure and mindset of the players are absolutely different. Agreeing to all that, I will continue to lead the way I want to,” Rohit asserted.
The stand-in skipper also cited Jasprit Bumrah’s name when he referred to the grind an international cricketer has to put through day and night. Bumrah recently has been included in the Test squad to South Africa and Rohit said that his case is the perfect example of how hard work pays off.
“It is a great boost for him (Burmrah) to be a part of the Test team. He is looking forward to it. For a while, he wanted to be a part of the Test team. It is all the reward for what he has done in the ODI format and the T20 format,” Rohit said when asked to comment about his IPL teammate.