The ongoing edition of the Asia Cup has been the most competitive season so far. All the teams have put in hard yards and have left no stone unturned to defeat the opposition. Talking about the Indian Cricket Team, they started the tournament on high by winning the first two games against Pakistan and Hong Kong and then suffered a disappointing loss in their first game of the Super 4 stage against arch-rivals.
While it was a smooth run for India in the group stage, they had a tough outing in their opening game of the Super 4 stage of the tournament as they suffered a 5-wicket loss against Pakistan. However, they now need to win all their matches if they have to fancy their chances of reaching the final and winning the tournament. They are next slated to face Sri Lanka on Tuesday, September 6th.
Although they will be coming on the back of the loss, it is expected that they will win the game against Sri Lanka. They comparatively have an experienced side than Sri Lanka and with the pressure of winning, they are likely to bring their best and claim the game.
Sri Lanka on other hand is in good form. They recently defeated Afghanistan but with the kind of firepower on the Indian side, it’ll be difficult for them to win against the Rohit Sharma-led side. The Lions are putting up a fight every time they are taking the field. Be it the group stage game against Bangladesh or the Super 4 stage game against Afghanistan, the Dasun Shanaka-led team never looked completely out of ideas.
Dasun Shanaka has been the leader Sri Lanka has been searching for a while. The others are chipping in too. Kusal Mendis, Danushka Gunathilaka, Pathum Nissanka, Chamika Karunaratne, Wanindu Hasaranga, Asitha Fernando, and all others, Sri Lanka are playing like a team. An example of it was exhibited in their game against Afghanistan where everyone chipped in. The Lankans are high on confidence and just need to stick to their strengths if they are to beat India.
What have they done so far?
India began their Asia Cup campaign with a five-wicket win over arch-rivals Pakistan. After opting to bowl first, India restricted the Men in Green to 147 runs before chasing down the target in the final over courtesy of an all-round effort by Hardik Pandya.
The Men in Blue followed that win by registering another resounding win over Hong Kong by 40 runs. Coming to bat first after losing the toss, India started slow but thanks to a blitzkrieg by Suryakumar Yadav and a strong performance by Virat Kohli, India posted 192 on board in their allotted 20 overs. Hong Kong succumbed to the Indian challenge despite putting up a little resistance and ended up only scoring 152 in 20 overs.
However, the Men in Blue succumbed to their first loss of the competition after losing to Pakistan in their first Super Four game of this competition. India was asked to bat first by Pakistan in that game and despite starting strong, India could only muster 181 in their 20 overs that was at least 10-15 runs short of the par score. Pakistan started slow but thanks to a valiant effort by Mohammad Rizwan and a counter-attacking innings from Mohammad Nawaz, Pakistan defeated the Men in Blue by five wickets.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka started their Asia Cup campaign on a sour note after losing their tournament opener to Afghanistan by eight wickets last week. The Lankan Lions were bundled out for 105 in 19.4 overs with Fazalhaq Farooqi taking three wickets in 3.4 overs. Chasing 106, Afghanistan reached 106 for two in 10.1 overs with Hazratullah Zazai smacking an unbeaten knock of 37 runs off 28 balls, in Dubai last week.
In their next do-or-die game in the tournament against the Bangla Tigers, Sri Lanka came back from their batting debacle against Afghanistan to complete their second-highest T20I chase of all time. They were helped to a certain extent by the number of extras that Bangladesh bowled, although Shakib Al Hasan’s side was quite brilliant in nearly every other department of the game in Dubai. Kusal Mendis was the highest scorer for Sri Lanka having made 60 off 37 balls while captain Dasun Shanaka made 45 off 33 balls. Their partnership put Sri Lanka on top in a game in which momentum swung both ways on a number of occasions
The Lankans then continued their winning momentum to crush the Afghans by four wickets in the two sides’ super four clash. Winning the toss, The Lankan Lions asked the Afghans to bat first who started in a superb fashion thanks to a gem of an innings by Rahmanullah Gurbaz. However, the Lankans clawed their way back and managed to restrict the Afghans to 175 in 20 overs. Chasing 176, all Sri Lankan batters contributed equally and helped the tournament hosts to cross the line to register their first win over the Afghans in this edition of the Asia Cup.
Head to Head record
This will be the 26th time that India and Sri Lanka are playing each other in the T20I format of the Asia Cup with the former winning 17 of those encounters played between the two sides whilst the latter winning this fixture seven times. One of the games between the two sides has been abandoned.
Meanwhile, this will be the first encounter played between the two sides in the United Arab Emirates. This will also be the two sides’ just second T20I encounter in the Asia Cup after India won the only such fixture by a margin of five wickets in the 2016 edition.
Key Players
Ravi Bishnoi (India): Ravi Bishnoi has had a bright start to his international career: in 10 T20Is, the leg-spinner has taken 16 wickets at an average of 17 while his economy of 7.1 has been brilliant; in his second last T20I, vs West Indies, Bishnoi returned with 4/16, which would have gone a long way in ensuring his name in the Asia Cup squad.
It is very much possible that Bishnoi could play in the eleven ahead of Ashwin as the young leggie offers the variety of turning the ball both ways, having made his reputation as more of a googly bowler. Regarding the T20 World Cup selection, Asia Cup performance would be crucial and Bishnoi’s bowling will be monitored by the management closely.
Pathum Nissanka (Sri Lanka): Pathum Nissanka has been one of the most exciting prospects from the island nation in recent times. The technically gifted top-order batter has amassed 686 runs in 26 T20I matches so far.
He has only scored 58 runs in two Asia Cup matches so far. His strike rate of 115 might also be worrying at first sight, but he has been working on his power game. On pitches that might get more difficult to bat on, Nissanka could be the perfect anchor for the Sri Lankan innings, allowing the other batters to play freely around him.
Predicted Playing XI
India: Rohit Sharma (C), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant (WK), Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal
Sri Lanka: Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Mendis (WK), Charith Asalanka, Danushka Gunathilaka, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Dasun Shanaka (C), Wanindu Hasaranga, Chamika Karunaratne, Maheesh Theekshana, Asitha Fernando, Dilshan Madushanka
Prediction
Although Sri Lanka has put in some really good performances in the tournament so far, they are still behind India on many fronts. Therefore, the Men in Blue are expected to win Tuesday’s clash.