Here we go again! It’s India v Sri Lanka, perhaps for the millionth time. Well, not quite so, but that’s how supporters of both teams feel about India – Sri Lanka matches. The reality is that although there were several India v Sri Lanka matches a few years ago, recently, there haven’t been any. The two countries have only met each other in multi-nation tournaments.
There have been two big moments in India v Sri Lanka clashes though. The first was when Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the World Cup 2011 for India with a six. The second was when Sri Lanka’s Thisara Perera returned the favor, winning the T20 World Cup final in Sri Lanka in 2013, again, with a six.
Indian players love playing the Sri Lankans. Virat Kohli basically built his career by scoring tons of runs against them. How can anybody forget the brilliant hundred made by Virat Kohli against Sri Lanka in Hobart, Australia in 2012? Indeed, the Sri Lanka ODI series might present Virat with a golden opportunity to get some much needed runs in the kitty. It is clear that he needs runs, as many as he can get, after his disastrous England tour. And what’s more – he shall be captaining India in this series has the usual captain MS Dhoni has been mercifully been given a break.
MS Dhoni has played non-stop cricket since he became famous all over India with a big hundred in only his third ODI match, against Pakistan, in 2005. Since then, he has gone from strength to strength and become India’s most successful captain. But that role has come under great pressure after a run of defeats in Test matches abroad. But unfortunately for India, Dhoni is irreplaceable at the moment because his most likely successor, Virat Kohli, just had the most miserable series possible in England, which left him completely devastated and did his reputation a great deal of harm. Nobody sees Kohli as the best batsman in the world anymore.
India may have put up an abject display in the Test series against England, but they won the one day series and won it handsomely, just as they won the truncated ODI series against West Indies. So although India’s position as a Test side has taken quite a beating – they are now 6th in the ICC Test rankings – their position as an ODI side is still very strong. They are the top ranked ODI team in the world.
Sri Lanka would want to challenge that. Arguably, while the batting lineups of both teams are equal in strength, Sri Lanka have a slightly better bowling attack, which gives them a small advantage. But this may not count for much as the Indian batsmen love the Sri Lankan bowling. So this is really a series that can go either way and will be decided by which team’s batsmen perform the best on that particular day.
For India, Mohammad Shami is out because of injury, and this is probably a good thing, because it gives a chance to two very quick fast bowlers, Umesh Yadav and Varun Aaron to get into the side. Wriddhiman Saha is set to replace MS Dhoni. For Sri Lanka, Upul Tharanga is expected to open the batting with Tilekaratne Dilshan.
The Teams
India: 1 Ajinkya Rahane, 2 Shikhar Dhawan, 3 Virat Kohli (capt), 4 Ambati Rayudu, 5 Suresh Raina, 6 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 R Ashwin, 9 Ishant Sharma, 10 Umesh Yadav, 11 Varun Aaron
Sri Lanka: 1 Upul Tharanga, 2 Tillakaratne Dilshan, 3 Kumar Sangakkara, 4 Mahela Jayawardene 5 Ashan Priyanjan, 6 Angelo Mathews (capt), 7 Thisara Perera, 8 Seekkuge Prasanna, 9 Dhammika Prasad, 10 Nuwan Kulasekara, 11 Suraj Randiv/Lahiru Gamage
The match begins at 1:30 PM at the Barabati Stadium in Cuttack. Watch it live on Star Sports in India.
