The Gautam Gambhir-led Indian team management will have a chance to decide who among KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant will be India's long-term wicketkeeper-batsman in ODI cricket in the three-match ODI series against Sri Lanka starting on Friday. In this series, all eyes will also be on captain Rohit Sharma and star batsman Virat Kohli, who will play a match for the first time after winning the T20 World Cup.
The Indian team management will focus on preparing a proper team combination without paying attention to the discussions going on outside as there are some important ODI competitions to be held this season including the Champions Trophy. In this context, the issue of Rahul vs Rishabh will be a priority. Before Pant returned from injury, Rahul played the role of wicketkeeper-batsman well. He performed well in front of the wicket and behind the wicket. The previous team management led by Rahul Dravid had shown full confidence in him.
Now that Pant is back, it will be interesting to see whether Gambhir gives preference to this left-handed batsman or keeps faith in Rahul like the previous team management. If Gambhir and captain Rohit decide to keep both these batsmen in the playing XI, then they will have to consider how to fit Shreyas Iyer in the team, who has been doing well in 50-over cricket.
In this way, there is a competition between Rahul, Pant, and Iyer for two places in the Indian batting order. If India keeps these three in the team, then it will have to go with five bowlers. India, however, will not want to take such a risk because Hardik Pandya is not playing in this series due to personal reasons. India can give a chance to either Shivam Dubey or Riyan Parag as the number six batsman.
In this, Parag seems to have the upper hand as he also played the role of a bowler in the recently concluded T20 series against Sri Lanka. This player from Assam had also performed well in the 50-over domestic competition Deoghar Trophy. On the other hand, Dubey, who played ODIs five years ago, played only one match in the T20 series against Sri Lanka and he did not bowl in that too.
Gambhir will also keep an eye on the performance of Rohit and Kohli as he has to prepare the team for the ODI World Cup to be held in 2017. Both these players have not played any ODI match since the World Cup final against Australia last year and they will be desperate to make a great comeback in the 50-over format.
On the other hand, Sri Lanka's team has a mix of experience and youth. If it has to challenge India, then its batsmen will have to perform well. Its middle-order batsmen were not able to perform well in the T20 series. Apart from this, Sri Lanka's team is also facing the problem of players getting injured. It will not get the services of fast bowlers Mathisha Pathirana and Dilshan Madhushanka, who have been ruled out of the series due to injury.
Probably playing-11 of both teams
Sri Lanka: Pathum Nissanka, Avishka Fernando, Kusal Mendis, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Charith Aslanka (captain), Zenith Liyanage, Wanindu Hasaranga, Chamika Karunaratne, Dunith Welalage, Mahish Theekshana, Asitha Fernando.
India: Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul/Rishabh Pant, Shivam Dubey/Riyan Parag, Axar Patel, Harshit Rana, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Khalil Ahmed/Arshdeep Singh
Live streaming information
The match between India and Sri Lanka will be played at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo. The match will be played today from 2.30 pm Indian time. The live telecast of the first ODI will be available in India on Sony Sports Ten 1, Sony Sports Ten 1 HD, Sony Sports Ten 5, and Sony Sports Ten 5 HD TV channels. Apart from this, live streaming of the match will be available on the SonyLIV app. You can also watch the match on OTT-Play. Along with this, you will also be able to get live updates of the match on Amar Ujala.com.
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