The Indian cricket team will be favourites against a struggling Sri Lanka side in the upcoming three-match T20I series starting on Thursday in Lucknow. While India have defeated New Zealand and West Indies to record six straight victories in the format, the struggling Sri Lankan cricket team is coming off a 1-4 defeat at the hands of Australia in an away tour, and are likely to be without the their ace cricketer Wanindu Hasaranga for the T20I series against India.
Hasaranga is believed to be out of the T20 series against India which consists of three matches, of which the first will be played on Thursday at Lucknow whereas the other two will be played on Saturday and Sunday at the Dharamsala cricket stadium. Hasaranga is out of the series mostly as he is yet to recover from the coronavirus infection which he caught in Australia and has not recovered since.
Nevertheless, all eyes will be on the resurgence of the Indian cricket team who have rested their key players of the format including former captain Virat Kohli, wicket-keeper batsman Rishabh Pant and all rounder Shardul Thakur. The ace fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah is making a comeback into the series where in India will be led by the dependable Rohit Sharma but there are some more big names missing from the squad.
On Wednesday, the Indian cricket board announced that middle-order batsman Suryakumar Yadav and bowling all-rounder Deepak Chahar have been ruled out of the entire series against Sri Lanka owing to their respective injuries, which they suffered during the third and final T20 match against the West Indies, played last Sunday.
The absence of Kohli, Pant and Suryakumar from the batting line-up gives the others such as Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shreyas Iyer and a few others an opportunity to make it big on the international stage. In the bowling department, Mohammed Shami continues to be on a resting period whereas Bumrah has returned after sitting out of the home series against the West Indies.
For Sri Lanka, their opening batsmen Pathum Nissanka is their biggest hope against India while a lot will also be expected from the pair of Dushmantha Chameera and Dasun Shanaka. Both Chameera and Shanaka ]] along with Hasaranga had trouble did the Indians last year when they travelled to the island nation for a limited-overs series.
It must be remembered that India lost the series to a lowly Sri Lanka by a margin of 1-2 as they were severely hit by the coronavirus last August, which ruled out more than half a dozen players from their squad from the last two matches.
