India take on Sri Lanka as Charith Asalanka won the toss and elected to bowl first in the first T20I at the Pallekele International Cricket stadium on July 27. It will be Suryakumar Yadav's first assignment as India's T20I captain. He benched four star players Shivam Dube, Sanju Samson, Washington Sundar and Khaleel Ahmed for the series opener. On the other hand, Sri Lanka will also head into this match under new leadership with Charith Asalanka taking the reins from Wanindu Hasaranga as their new T20I captain.
What did the captains say?
India skipper Suryakumar Yadav, after losing the toss, said:
“It (the pitch) looks good and it is fine to bat first. The brand of cricket remains the same. The relationship between me and him (Gambhir) have had for so many years is special. Dube, Samson, Khaleel and Washington are the four players to miss out. That (World Cup) is history, we start from scratch and it is a new challenge.”
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka captain Charith Asalanka after winning the toss, said:
“We are going to bowl first. It looks like a pretty good pitch and we want to see how it goes. We are going with 6-5 combination. I want to give every player a specific roles and that;s why we are going with 5 bowlers.”
India's playing XI:
Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Suryakumar Yadav(c), Rishabh Pant(w), Riyan Parag, Hardik Pandya, Rinku Singh, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Siraj.
Sri Lanka's Playing XI:
Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Mendis(w), Kusal Perera, Kamindu Mendis, Charith Asalanka(c), Wanindu Hasaranga, Dasun Shanaka, Maheesh Theekshana, Matheesha Pathirana, Asitha Fernando, Dilshan Madushanka
Head to Head
With a 19-9 head-to-head record in favor of India, the two cricketing nations have clashed 29 times in the T20I format. One of their encounters was inconclusive as it ended with no result.
Pitch Report
"The weather looks pleasant. There's a cool breeze blowing across the ground. The wicket looks good. We had 3 LPL games here and that surface looked different. We see cracks. It might get slower once the ball loses its hardness but come evening it should be good for batting. We expect a lot of runs here," reckon Saba Karim and Farvez Mahroof.
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