Colombo, July 18: Indian cricket team under the leadership of new captain Shikhar Dhawan take on Sri Lanka in the opening ODI on Sunday (July 18) at R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo.
With this match, some of the fringe India cricketers will be eager for an ICC T20 World Cup audition when India's different-looking yet formidable white-ball squad.
Winning any international series will be paramount but one can expect a few combinations being tried out during a series that got delayed by five days due to the COVID-19 scare in the Sri Lankan camp.
Despite the absence of big players like Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, and Jasprit Bumrah, Team India is well ahead of Sri Lanka. The visitors' squad comprises Dhawan, Suryakumar Yadav, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Sanju Samson, Yuzvendra Chahal, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, and Deepak Chahar and their good form in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 will bode them well.
The young guns who have proved themselves time and again, and coach Rahul Dravid has made it clear that the visitors will focus on winning the Sri Lanka series and not everybody could get to play all matches. It will be interesting to see who gets a chance in the playing eleven.
Here are the live updates from the 1st ODI:
Prithvi Shaw - who will be opening for India in the match - said, "India always have competition, there are a lot of brilliant players in the country and you have to keep scoring consistently to be on the top. It's like a family sometimes you don't score runs and you sit out. T20 is something different and ODIs you have a lot of time to assess the situation and play accordingly. I will take more time here, absolutely different in this format. It's always lovely to work under Rahul Sir, we had him as a coach for U-19 team and A team. so whatever experience he shares we are mentally prepared for it."
Sri Lanka (Playing XI): Avishka Fernando, Minod Bhanuka(w), Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Dhananjaya de Silva, Charith Asalanka, Dasun Shanaka(c), Wanindu Hasaranga, Chamika Karunaratne, Isuru Udana, Dushmantha Chameera, Lakshan Sandakan.
India (Playing XI): Shikhar Dhawan(c), Prithvi Shaw, Ishan Kishan(w), Manish Pandey, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Deepak Chahar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav.
Dhawan: We were also looking to bat first as dew factor will come into play. Shaw will open along with me. Kishan and Suryakumar will make their debuts. Kuldeep and Chahal are the two spinners playing for us
Shanaka: We are going to bat first. History suggests batting first is ideal here. We have a debutant, it's Bhanuka Rajapaksa.
Two Debutants for Team India! Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan receive their debut ODI caps today.
India vs Sri Lanka, 1st ODI: Toss Update: Dasun Shanaka wins toss, elects to bat first against India.
We are match ready!
Hello and welcome to our coverage for the 1st #SLvIND ODI from Colombo 🙌
— BCCI (@BCCI) July 18, 2021
A casual catch-up between the coaches ahead of the series opener 🤜🤛 #TeamIndia pic.twitter.com/MbRCttuMcm