Overview:
Having just 5 batsmen in their XI due to COVID related complications, India seemed too defensive in their approach while batting which led to a below par total of 132. Going into the decider, they would want to bat a little aggressively. They have Shikhar Dhawan and Ruturaj Gaikwad who can do it for them with their bowling is good enough.
Sri Lanka, on the other hand, would be pleased to get a T20I win for just the 2nd time in the year. Though, they would like to work on building partnerships as they failed to have any over 30 runs.
The key to winning this game should be scoring high amount of runs in the powerplay as we have witnessed that the scoring gets pretty difficult later on in the middle overs which makes the powerplay all the more crucial to be capitalized. The key later in the innings will be to keep rotating the strike in the middle overs alongwith punishing the odd bad deliveries for boundaries.
Venue And Time:
R Premadasa Stadium, Colombo at 8 PM (IST)
Team News:
With India left with very few options, they are least likely to make any changes apart from a possible forced change of Navdeep Saini who has got a shoulder injury.
India Probable XI: Shikhar Dhawan (C), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Devdutt Padikkal, Sanju Samson (WK), Nitish Rana, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Rahul Chahar, Deepak Chahar, Chetan Sakariya, Varun Chakravarthy
Sri Lanka might not want to meddle with their winning combination.
Sri Lanka Probable XI: Avishka Fernando, Minod Bhanuka (WK), Dhananjaya de Silva, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Dasun Shanaka (C), Ramesh Mendis, Wanindu Hasaranga, Chamika Karunaratne, Isuru Udana, Akila Dananjaya, Dushmantha Chameera
Pitch Report:
Expect a batting friendly pitch where facing the spinners would be difficult.
Fun Facts:
1. In the 9 T20I that he has played so far, Sanju Samson has scored just 117 at a batting average of 13.00 and S/R of 113.59. He has failed to cross the score of 20 on 7 occasions. With Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul and Ishan Kishan already leaving a mark, he will have to do something special to get a go in the upcoming T20 World Cup.
2. Except for the single on the solitary delivery he faced, Navdeep Saini had nothing to do in the 2nd T20I as he didn’t bowl or even picked a catch.
3. None of the top 7 batsmen among the Sri Lankan side from the last game have a career T20I S/R of 120 or above with the highest being Minod Bhanuka's 117.94.
4. If Sri Lanka win this game, this would be just their 2nd T20I series win in 10 T20I series since 2019. Their only other T20I win came over Pakistan in Pakistan when they defeated them by 3-0.
Dream XI Prediction:
