Virat Kohli’s men look for an ideal start to the ODI series

India already clean sweeping the Sri Lankans in the Test series are also eyeing for a similar showing in the ODI series. Although this is a different format and both teams start a new.

Date and Time : Sunday 20th August 2017, 2:30 PM

Venue : Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium, Dambulla

I think the limited overs format brings a lot of belief among the Sri Lankan fans that their team can perhaps compete against India. The Test format demands a lot and India certainly are ruling world cricket at the moment.

Recently though the Sri Lankans lost at home to Zimbabwe 3-2 in the ODI series. Their bowling looked vulnerable and this weakness the Indians might exploit.

Lankan batters might just enjoy the shorter format as they love to play shots. In the test series we saw the likes of Kusal Mendis, Upul Tharanga and Niroshan Dickwella play some shots. Their style of play is what is needed now in the one-day series.

Teams news and possible line-ups

Upul Tharanga is going to captain Sri Lanka in the One-day series.

Guys who played the Zimbabwe series, namely – Nuwan Pradeep, Asela Gunaratne, Nuwan Kulasekara and Lahiru Kumara are all left out of this series. The four guys who replace them are, Malinda Pushpakumara, Milinda Siriwardana, Thisara Perera and Vishwa Fernando.

As for India, Seven guys who played in the West Indies last month, namely – Yuvraj Singh, Dinesh Karthik, Rishabh Pant, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin have been left out of this series. And the guys who replace them are, Yuzvendra Chahal, Lokesh Rahul, Manish Pandey, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah.

I think Bhuvneshwar and Bumrah are certain to play, but Kohli has to choose between Axar, Kuldeep and Chahal for the two spin options.

India XI : Rohit, Shikhar, Virat (C), KL Rahul, Dhoni (WK), Kedar Jadhav, Hardik, Bhuvneshwar, Axar, Kuldeep, Bumrah.

Sri Lanka XI : Tharanga (C), Gunathilaka, Dickwella (WK), Kusal Mendis, Mathews, Kapugedera, Thisara Perera, Sandakan, Malinga, Vishwa Fernando, Wanindu Hasaranga.

Prediction

No prizes for guessing as to who are the favorites for this one. But i think the team who commits lesser mistakes and are sharp on the field are gonna win the 1st ODI.