CHRIS DHAMBARAGE
COLOMBO – India won the toss and elected to bat first in their Asia Cup 50-Overs Cricket Tournament Super Four match against Sri Lanka at the R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on Tuesday.
This will be the third successive day that India are playing in this tournament after their rain-hit Super Four match against the arch-rivals Pakistan, which commenced on Sunday and ended on the reserve day on Monday.
India and Sri Lanka have both recorded one win each so far in the Super Four Segment but India are currently on top of the points table with a superior net run-rate of 4.560 while the home side are in second place with a net run-rate of 0.420.
Meanwhile, Pakistan and Bangladesh are placed third and fourth respectively.
India made one change and added a third spinner to their playing XI with Axar Patel set to play a major role in this track, which India Skipper Rohit Sharma described as a dry surface without any grass on it. Shardul Thakur was left out of the team.
Sri Lanka Captain Dasun Shanaka said: “We would have batted first too. The youngsters have become senior players. Young Wellalage is doing so well, Samarawickrama, Matheesha Pathirana.”
“Hopefully everyone will continue their momentum today. They are a pretty strong side compared to our line-up, but we need to play a quality game of cricket,” Shanaka stressed.
The teams
India (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, K. L. Rahul, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav and Mohammed Siraj.
Sri Lanka (Playing XI): Dimuth Karunaratne, Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Mendis, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Charith Asalanka, Dhananjaya de Silva, Dasun Shanaka (Captain), Dunith Wellalage, Maheesh Theekshana, Kasun Rajitha and Matheesha Pathirana.
Umpires: Masudur Rahman (Bangladesh) and Richard Illingworth (England).
Television Umpire: Paul Wilson (Australia).
Reserve Umpire: Asif Yaqoob (Pakistan).
Match Referee: Javagal Srinath (India).
