India favorites against the Lankan lions
India will be having good memories of this island as the last time they met then India won 2-1. Virat Kohli became just the second Indian captain to win a test series on Lankan soil. The first being of course Mohammed Azharuddin who won it back in 1993.
Now, Virat will be eager to do well in this series under Ravi Shastri. We can expect to see a more confident Indian team touring Sri lanka.
The Indian team have been playing test cricket very well since the tour of Sri Lanka in 2015. They have won seven straight test series and are on a winning streak. In fact, the Indian team have lost just one of their last 23 tests, winning 17 and drawing 5!
The Indian team are currently ranked the number 1 test side in the world. This makes it even tougher for Sri Lanka to be competitive.
Sri Lanka will be well aware that India have a lot of knowledge of these conditions. Also they have the type of players to do the job in these conditions.
Sri lankans have been playing against the likes of Zimbabwe and Bangladesh recently, which doesn’t have them in good stead. They certainly have to raise their game against India, which they are capable of.
Possible Line-ups :-
Sri Lanka : Rangana Herath (C), Dimuth Karunaratne, Upul Tharanga, Kusal Mendis, Angelo Mathews, Asela Gunaratne, Niroshan Dickwella (WK), Dilruwan Perera, Suranga Lakmal, Nuwan Pradeep, Lahiru Kumara.
India : Virat Kohli (C), Abhinav Mukund, Shikhar Dhawan, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Wriddhiman Saha, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami.
Prediction
India have got this you would say but mind you Sri Lanka are an extremely tough team to beat at home. Their are vulnerabilities in the Indian middle order for example and Sri Lanka can exploit it. So you could expect a tightly fought series but Sri Lanka are definitely the underdogs.
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