Press Trust of India
Pune, Feb 8: Boosted by their 3-0 clean sweep of Australia in the T20 series Down Under, a confident India would seek to continue their winning momentum when they take on a depleted and new-look Sri Lanka in the first of the three T20 games here Tuesday.
After the comprehensive series triumph in Australia, these three matches would certainly act as the springboard for the hosts to begin their preparations for the Asia Cup T20 Championships beginning in Bangladesh later this month and the World T20 in March-April in India.
India are however, also a depleted side as Test skipper Virat Kohli who was in tremendous form against the Aussies, have been rested. But putting that aside, they still have enough armoury in their ranks to gun down the visitors.
In Rohit Sharma, who was also in top form in Australia, and Shikhar Dhawan, the home team has a set of right-left openers who have repeatedly given the side great starts and they could be a handful for the largely inexperienced Lanka bowling attack.
The riches are evident in the rest of the batting order with the likes of Suresh Raina, captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and the recalled Yuvraj Singh, present along with the fit-again Ajinkya Rahane and Manish Pandey.
On the other hand, the visitors, who are being led by batsman Dinesh Chandimal, will be without their regular T20 captain Lasith Malinga and Test skipper Angelo Mathews for the entire series as they are nursing a knee injury and a groin strain respectively. Experienced all-rounder Tillakaratne Dilshan has also been ruled out of the opening game due to a hand injury.
Also absent from the visitors’ line-up are seasoned bowlers – pacer Nuwan Kulasekara and spinner Rangana Herath and that makes the bowling attack look a bit thin and inexperience on paper.
This will be the first time the two sides face each other in the shortest format since the final of the 2014 World Twenty20, which Sri Lanka won in April.
