After a washed-out series opener, the teams head to Indore for the second T20I of the three-match series. Both the teams will breathe a sigh of relief as the weather forecast shows no rain threat on Tuesday at Holkar Cricket Stadium.
All eyes will be on Shikhar Dhawan who returns to the T20I side to cement his spot in Rohit Sharma’s absence. Virat Kohli will be looking to start the year with a win against an out-of-form Sri Lankan side.
Head-to-head:
The two teams have gone up against each other on 17 occasions. India have won 11 whereas Sri Lanka have won five matches and one ended in no result. Playing at home, India’s record gets better. They have won six matches and lost two.
Will Kohli make it five in a row?
Virat Kohli has scored a half-century every time he has played against Sri Lanka in the T20 format. Kohli has scored 283 runs from just four innings at an average of 94. The Indian skipper is also just seven runs away from surpassing Rohit to become India’s leading run-scorer against Sri Lanka in the format.
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Chahal in need of a wicket
Yuzvendra Chahal needs just one wicket to become the leading wicket-taker against Sri Lanka in the format. With 14 wickets from five matches, he is tied with South Africa’s Imran Tahir, Australia’s Adam Zampa, Pakistan’s Saeed Ajmal and Shahid Afridi. The leg-spinner has been in and out of the side of late but his performance makes him a default pick for the Guwahati T20I. However, he was not picked in the side in Guwahati T20I as Kuldeep Yadav made the cut.
Bumrah’s first game after injury
Jasprit Bumrah returns to the side after recovering from his back injury. The death overs specialist will be an automatic pick in the lineup. It will be interesting to see whether Kohli includes three frontline pacers in the squad or choose between Shardul Thakur and Navdeep Saini.
Malinga’s struggle against India
Sri Lankan skipper Lasith Malinga is the leading wicket-taker in the world in T20I format with 106 wickets from 79 games. But, only four of these wickets came against India. Malinga has played seven T20Is against India including four matches where he remained wicketless.
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Mathews’ return
Angelo Mathews is one of the most experienced players in the Sri Lankan lineup. Mathews returns to the T20I side after more than 17 months. The all-rounder’s presence is a much-needed boost in the middle order to prevent batting collapses. The 32-year-old has scored 144 runs from seven innings against India. In the current side, only Kusal Perera has scored more (174 runs from six innings) against India.
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