Carrying on his impressive run of toss on this tour, Indian skipper Virat Kohli had no hesitation in opting to bowl first on a fine day at Kandy. When quizzed about his playing XI, Kohli admitted that the team would field the same XI as the one which decimated Sri Lanka on Sunday.
Sri Lanka, needing desperately a win, made a few changes to the XI and skipper Upul Tharanga reiterated that at the toss.
India will be keen to test out all their players in this game for sure. The likes of Kedar Jadhav and MS Dhoni haven’t got enough opportunities to bat so far, and this game could just offer that. Dhoni this year, despite averaging in excess of 60 with the bat, hasn’t looked like his glorious old self, having struggled to get going initially, and this has hurt the team’s cause. Thereby, this series is indeed considered a real challenge for the former Indian captain.
Sri Lanka on the contrary, have tried and tested everything, but to no avail. Even handing a recall to the veteran Lasith Malinga caused no improvement as the pacer now looks terribly jaded and a weak shadow of himself. The Upul Tharanga led outfit will have to find inner motivation in order to make a comeback into the series, or else, it will be a straightforward crushing by the hands of India.
Virat Kohli: “We will bowl first. During the Test, the wicket played slowish during the afternoon session and we’re playing in the afternoon. The whole idea is to get the best of batting conditions. It’s been nine years and 300 games for the country. It’s a huge honor. I try to give my best and today is no different. Dhawan is such an instinctive player. When his head is clear, the bowling or the pitch doesn’t matter. It was all up to Shikhar setting the platform and we playing the second fiddle. We are playing the same team. The experiment was about giving the guys different roles. We still have three games to go.”
Upul Tharanga: “We would have bowled first too. The ball comes nicely onto the bat in the evening. We had a good start, we didn’t capitalize. Have to be patient. Three changes, Thisara, Wanidu and Sandakan out. Dushmantha, Akila Dananjaya, and Milinda Siriwardana come in.”
India XI:
1. R. Sharma 2. S. Dhawan 3. V. Kohli (c) 4. KL Rahul 5. MS Dhoni (wk) 6. K. Jadhav 7. H. Pandya 8. A. Patel 9. B. Kumar 10. Y. Chahal 11. J. Bumrah
Sri Lanka XI:
Niroshan Dickwella(w), Danushka Gunathilaka, Kusal Mendis, Upul Tharanga(c), Angelo Mathews, Chamara Kapugedera, Milinda Siriwardana, Akila Dananjaya, Lasith Malinga, Vishwa Fernando, Dushmantha Chameera