Daily Times

RAJKOT: The last time India lost a bilateral T20I series at home was in 2019 when Australia beat them 2-0. Since then they have been on an 11-series unbeaten streak. But that could change on Saturday (today). After running India close in the first T20I, Sri Lanka beat them by 16 runs in the second to make it 1-1. A win for Sri Lanka in Rajkot will not only snap India’s streak but also give the visitors their first T20I series win in India in six attempts. Sri Lanka’s batters may not put fear in the opposition’s mind, but they understand the grammar of the format. Throughout their innings in the second T20I, Sri Lanka had at least one batter in the middle — Kusal Mendis in the first half and Dasun Shanaka in the second — taking the attack to the bowlers. In Wanindu Hasaranga and Maheesh Theekshana, they have two have the wiliest spinners going around. If their fast bowlers click, as they did in Pune, they can compete with any side.

India, on the other hand, had two top-order collapses in as many games. Deepak Hooda and Axar Patel rescued them in the first T20I, and Suryakumar Yadav and Axar tried to keep them in the game in the second. Apart from that, their bowling unit as a whole hasn’t clicked either. After the first T20I, Hardik Pandya spoke about putting his players in tough situations. In the form of a must-win game, he has got exactly that.

Arshdeep Singh and Dasun Shanaka in spotlight: Despite making his T20I debut only six months ago, Arshdeep Singh was supposed to be the leader of the pace attack in this new-look Indian squad. He missed the first T20I with illness, and then bowled five no-balls in two overs, which cost India 37, in the second. Overstepping has been an old issue with Arshdeep, and it is high time he fixed it. Dasun Shanaka loves playing against India. In the opening game, his 47 off 27 balls kept Sri Lanka in the contest. On Thursday, he smashed the fastest T20I half-century by a Sri Lanka batter before picking up two wickets in the final over of the game to seal the win. His last five T20I knocks against India are 56 not out (22), 45 (27), 33 not out (18), 74 not out (38) and 47 not out (19). With ball, he has taken more than half of his T20I wickets (14 out of 23) against them. If he continues in the same vein, it will not be easy for India to keep their unbeaten streak intact.

After the second T20I, Rahul Dravid said that India were not looking to make too many changes unless there was an injury. So expect them to go with an unchanged XI. Sri Lanka might be facing a selection conundrum. Do they retain the winning combination, or try to improve it further by replacing an out-of-form Bhanuka Rajapaksa with Sadeera Samarawickrama? In the recently concluded LPL, Samarawickrama was the second-highest run-getter with 294 runs at an average of 58.80 and a strike rate of 131.25.

Squads:

India (probable): 1 Ishan Kishan (wk), 2 Shubman Gill, 3 Rahul Tripathi, 4 Suryakumar Yadav, 5 Hardik Pandya (capt), 6 Deepak Hooda, 7 Axar Patel, 8 Shivam Mavi, 9 Umran Malik, 10 Arshdeep Singh, 11 Yuzvendra Chahal.

Sri Lanka (probable): 1 Pathum Nissanka, 2 Kusal Mendis (wk), 3 Dhananjaya de Silva, 4 Charith Asalanka, 5 Sadeera Samarawickrama/Bhanuka Rajapaksa, 6 Dasun Shanaka (capt), 7 Wanindu Hasaranga, 8 Chamika Karunaratne, 9 Maheesh Theekshana, 10 Kasun Rajitha, 11 Dilshan Madushanka.