India and Sri Lanka move on from their T20 series last week when they embark on one against each other which begins on Thursday. The two sides had very different outcomes to their last series but meet on a fairly common ground here.
That is because the overriding factor to these three matches is preparation for the T20 World Cup later in the year, although both sides will want to get one over the other in the here and now too. That should make for a decent series.
India
India drubbed West Indies 3-0 in their home series last week and although they weren’t at their best very often in the series, they did more than enough to come out on top and will head into this one feeling good about life, even allowing for the fact that there is room for improvement. What will have pleased India most is that they rested some key players who will definitely feature in the T20 World Cup later in the year and still beat a very dangerous side.
India will continue to monitor the workload of their key men in this series so they are likely to give a chance to a number of fringe players once again. They will probably want to bat a little better at the top of their innings as they near heading off for Australia but that is likely to come naturally when bigger players return. They look spot on with the ball though regardless of who they select and that is never a bad place for a side to be.
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka were beaten 4-1 out in Australia recently but they played better cricket than that so they might rightly feel aggrieved with the eventual end score. Pretty much anything that could go wrong for them in that series did do but they should have left that part of the world knowing that there isn’t a huge amount more that they need to do in order to be competitive upon their return for the World Cup. That is probably more important than any score.
Sri Lanka will know their top order batting wasn’t up to the mark in that series. There were mitigating circumstances of course. They were up against a top class seam attack and were playing in conditions which still aren’t normal to them so we can allow for that but their task now is to take that win in the final game and get more confidence for when the World Cup comes along. The positive was that they were competitive with the ball throughout that series, even latterly when Wanindu Hasaranga was downed by Covid.
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Team News
India will definitely make two changes to their side from the one which won the final T20 against West Indies last week as Deepak Chahar and Suryakumar Yadav have been withdrawn from the squad. Deepak Hooda, Sanju Samson, Jasprit Bumrah and Kuldeep Yadav are among those who didn’t feature against the Caribbean men who could play here.
Wanindu Hasaranga is going to miss the whole of this series which is a real blow for Sri Lanka. We could see the relatively untried Kamil Mishara, Janith Liyanage, Ashian Daniel and Shiran Fernando at some point in this series.
Betting
I’ll wait and see how the two sides show up for this series in terms of personnel before really getting my teeth into proceedings but there is one bet I like for this opening match and that comes in the form of the runs of Pathum Nissanka, who has a very low line at Betfair of just 16.5 runs. Admittedly India are decent with the new ball in these conditions but the opening batter has a good technique and I think that he has enough about him to see off that threat and score runs.
Nissanka hasn’t actually played a T20 match in India so that is one concern but conditions here aren’t going to be a great deal different to the ones he experiences back home so that lessens that worry a little bit. The Sri Lanka opener has gone past this line in nine of the 16 T20 internationals he has played including three in Australia last week. He isn’t someone who gets after the bowling early on, he’s more the glue they all bat around so I think he can work his way into the innings and go past 16.5 runs here.
Tips
Back P.Nissanka – Over 16.5 runs for a 3/10 stake at 1.73 with Betfair
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