India's cricket season never ends, but it's about to wind down for a while as India gets ready to play away from home. A short T20 series against Sri Lanka and an ODI series against Australia will for some time mark the end of India's home season.
A T20 series against Sri Lanka normally involves trying out some new players and giving the seniors rest. Even Rohit Sharma was given a well-deserved rest this time, however, and every other senior player was picked up.
Sri Lanka has some questions to answer about its thrilling T20 side in this series. In Pakistan, Sri Lanka won 3-0 but soon lost 3-0 to Australia. In India, especially recently, it has never had too much success against India, and would love to turn that record around a bit.
INDIA
After a prolonged absence due to injury, India welcomes Jasprit Bumrah back into the squad and that may be the best news that an Indian fan could get. In the limited-over formats, Jasprit Bumrah is widely regarded as the best fast bowler and will add a lot of value to the Indian side.
It may not be an exaggeration to say that at the moment Jasprit Bumrah is more critical than any other player in the Indian team.
Also for this series, Shikhar Dhawan is back and will open the batting with Lokesh Rahul. Now that Lokesh Rahul has started to score runs more regularly and breathes down the spot, Dhawan would be under a bit of pressure. Every time Rohit Sharma returns, India may have to choose who are its two best opening batsmen, one of whom is surely Rohit Sharma.
The position of the all-rounder is still up for grabs now that there is no Hardik Pandya. In previous matches, India played Washington Sunder, Ravindra Jadeja, and Shivam Dube with two fast-bowlers and a wrist-spinner to complete things.
That gives Kohli 6 options for bowling, something he seems to prefer.
SRI LANKA
Before this one in 2019, the Sri Lankan T20 team had played three series and lost two of them. Ironically, when a young and inexperienced man traveled to Pakistan and played absolutely fearless cricket, the one series he won was.
Sri Lanka has some very good T20 batsmen, but in recent matches it seems to be a little too much messing around with the batting order. Bhanuka Rajapaksa has been effective at the top of the order as well as proving his destructive game in the world's T20 leagues. It just doesn't make sense to push him down the order after a successful series in Pakistan.
Likewise, in a long time, Avishka Fernando has emerged as one of Sri Lanka's best young batsmen, but he appears to be out of place.
With Kusal Mendis, Niroshan Dickwella, Kusal Perera, Avishka Fernando, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, and perhaps Thisara Perera in the squad, the batting in Sri Lanka has enough firepower to raise some serious questions against the Indians.
Some of the other bowlers in the squad are Lakshan Sandakan, Lahiru Kumara, and Nuwan Pradeep. It is hoped that none of these bowlers would bother the Indian batting too much. If in this series Sri Lanka must have any chance, it must be on the back of its batting.
Online cricket betting prediction:
Bet on India in order to win the series.
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