Will Rohit Sharma hand debut to Riyan Parag after tied match? India's likely XI for 2nd ODI against Sri Lanka
Will India make any changes to their playing XI after the tied match in the first ODI? Rohit Sharma has Riyan Parag and Rishabh Pant on the bench.
Barring captain Rohit Sharma, none of the Indian batters found it easy on a Premadasa pitch that offered plenty of assistance to the spinners in the first ODI against Sri Lanka. Despite that, they were in a favourable position to chase down the 231-run target. India needed 1 run to win with two wickets in hand with set batter Shivam Dube on strike when Sri Lanka captain Charith Assalanka got two wickets in two balls, trapping both Dube and No.11, Arshdeep Singh LBW to force a tie - the second one between India and Sri Lanka in ODIs.
The tie would pinch India more. Barring Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya—both rested—they were at full strength and far superior on the player-to-player matrix against a Sri Lankan team that was missing its first-choice pace attack due to injuries. The Colombo pitch, however, evened things out.
In a chase of 231, skipper Rohit smashed 58 off 47 balls on a rank turner with variable bounce, taking his team to 71 in 10 overs but all the other batters never looked comfortable against an army of Lankan spinners. But one needs to look things into perspective before we come down heavily on Virat Kohli, Shubman Gill, KL Rahul, and others for failing to counter the Lankan spinners.
Should India have allowed Sri Lanka to score 230 after they had them 142/6 in 34 overs? Maybe not. The pitch was difficult to bat, especially when the ball got old as the spinners got a lot of purchase, making it hard for the batters to rotate the strike let alone hitting the boundaries.
Chasing anything above 200 was always going to take a lot of work. Dunith Wellalage ensured India got a stiff target by playing a superb knock. He scored an unbeaten 67 off 65 balls and got boundaries at regular intervals against India's two premier pacers Arshdeep Singh and Mohammed Siraj, who were good with the new ball but were not as effective towards the backend of the innings.
India's spinners - Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel and Washington Sundar were good but did not have luck on their side. As the two sides meet for the second ODI at the same venue on Tuesday, the chances of India making changes to their XI are less unless they want to further strengthen their spin attack by handing a debut to Riyan Parag.
Playing in place of Hardik Pandya, Dube, the only other pace option apart from Arshdeep and Siraj, did it fairly good job wit the ball, picking up one wicket for 19 runs in his four overs. With the bat too, his ability to hit the big shots against the spinners would come in handy in the middle overs. It would be harsh to look beyond him after just one match.
The rest of the Indian players pick themselves. KL Rahul was preferred over Rishabh Pant as the keeper-batter and it is likely to remain that way for the next two ODIs.
India's Predicted XI for the 2nd ODI against Sri Lanka
Openers: Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill
Top and Middle-order: Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel
wicketkeeper: KL Rahul
Seam-bowling all-rounder: Shivam Dube
Spinners: Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav
Pacers: Mohammed Siraj, Arshdeep Singh