2nd T20I: India sent in to bat by Sri Lanka with only five batters available

Hosts Sri Lanka won the toss and opted to field in the second T20I of the three-match series against India at the R Premadasa stadium in Colombo. The visitors are usually well backed in the batting department. However, this is not the case going into the T20I encounter. After Krunal Pandya was tested positive for COVID-19 on July 27th, all members of the team and support staff were immediately isolated and tested as a safety measure. The test results for everyone including the eight identified close contacts of Krunal returned negative. However, to ensure the health and safety of the squad, those 8 close contacts which comprise a few key batsmen like Manish Pandey were asked to continue to remain in isolation in the team hotel.

While the remaining T20Is will go on as per schedule, the Indian team has been hit hard in the batting department with only five batters available for selection. Skipper Shikhar Dhawan, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Devdutt Padikkal, Nitish Rana who have been handed their respective T20I debuts, and Sanju Samson are those batsmen. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Rahul Chahar, Navdeep Saini, Chetan Sakariya, and Varun Chakravarthy comprise the bowling department. Sakariya has further been handed his debut in the shortest format.

Bhuvneshwar will be expected to make his presence felt, as was the case in the opening T20I. The fast-bowler accounted for a four-wicket haul to help India defeat Sri Lanka by 38 runs. The visitors defended a total of 164, which seemed to be competitive but not a winning total at the end of the first innings. Bhuvneshwar had not seemed at his best in the recently concluded ODI series, with many criticising the lack of confidence. However, the pacer seemed to be in fine rhythm in the T20I encounter, accounting for wickets at regular intervals. Bhuvneshwar has now recorded the third-best figures in the shortest format for India against Sri Lanka, following his figures of 4/22. The fast-bowler accounted for the dismissals of Avishka Fernando, Chamika Karunaratne, Isuru Udana and Dushmantha Chameera, during the course of the encounter.

In order to add some sufficient backup, the All-India Senior Selection Committee has named additions to India’s squad for the second and third T20Is. Five net bowlers: Ishan Porel, Sandeep Warrier, Arshdeep Singh, R Sai Kishore, and Simarjeet Singh, will now be part of the squad for the remaining T20Is. They were added based on the request of the Indian team management in Sri Lanka.

“We’re street fighters”

Dhawan seemed confident while out for the toss, hailing his players as “street-fighters”.

“We would have batted first, so I’m happy with it. There are four debutants. Lots of changes due to obvious reasons. We’re all looking forward to this. We’re street-fighters and ready to face the challenges. Our main players aren’t here, but that gives the chance to the younger players. They have created great energy for the last 45 days, and I’m glad they have got their chances. These things can happen in the current scenario, that’s why we brought a large squad,” stated the Team India skipper.

Lineups:

Sri Lanka (Playing XI): Avishka Fernando, Minod Bhanuka(w), Dhananjaya de Silva, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Dasun Shanaka(c), Ramesh Mendis, Wanindu Hasaranga, Chamika Karunaratne, Isuru Udana, Akila Dananjaya, Dushmantha Chameera.

India (Playing XI): Shikhar Dhawan(c), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Devdutt Padikkal, Sanju Samson(w), Nitish Rana, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Rahul Chahar, Navdeep Saini, Chetan Sakariya, Varun Chakravarthy.