Sri Lanka will fancy their chances of a hat-trick of T20I series wins against Australia when they take on the Aaron Finch-led second string side in the second match of the T20I series on Sunday.

The visitors proved too strong for the hosts at the MCG. Now, the tour moves to a new venue – Kardinia Park – as Geelong, a port city situated around 75 kms from the MCG. Both teams are likely to play the same XI. The upcoming game would be more about improving the playing standards for the hosts while the tourists would obviously be going for the series honours.

Team Composition:

It was Australia’s bowling that turned out to be ineffective in the first match. The batsmen may have failed to capitalise on the starts but they eventually ended up putting a defend-able total on the board. The bowlers, particularly Billy Stanlake and Andrew Tye, leaked too many runs and ended with economy rates of 14 and 11.66 respectively. Jhye Richardson, the 20-year-old fast bowler, could make his T20I debut. The under-used Aston Turner could also be replaced with Ben Dunk to add more depth to their batting.

On the other hand, Sri Lanka aren’t likely to tinker with the team line-up much. The inclusion of Lasith Malinga is surely a great add on. He did well in his comeback match by ending with figures of 2/29. The other two fast bowlers – Nuwan Kulasekara and Vikum Bandara – were on the higher side in the economy column but should compensate for in the next match. Upul Tharanga was the only considerable failure in the opening match.

Probable XI:

Australia: Aaron Finch (C), Michael Klinger, Ben Dunk, Travis Head, Moises Henriques, Ashton Turner, Tim Paine (WK), James Faulkner, Pat Cummins, Adam Zampa, Andrew Tye.

Sri Lanka: Niroshan Dickwella (WK), Upul Tharanga (C), Dilshan Munaweera, Asela Gunaratne, Milinda Siriwardana, Chamara Kapugedera, Seekkugge Prasanna, Nuwan Kulasekara, Lakshan Sandakan, Lasith Malinga, Vikum Sanjaya.

Who said what?

“He is playing the 20-over format with a view to building up and hopefully being able to play in the Champions Trophy later in the year. We just hope everything goes well in terms of his body. He just makes such a difference at controlling the end overs,” Graham Ford.

“Certainly in Twenty20 cricket, your top three or four batters, if you get 60, 70-plus runs, it goes a long way to winning the game. In that situation, myself and Finchy, who got starts, it certainly would have been nice if one of us got a big score but it didn’t happen,” Michael Klinger.

Stats:

Geelong, the port city located on Corio Bay and the Barwon River, in the state of Victoria, is the only non-capital Australian cities to host the national team in an international match. The other city in the list is Cairns.