Sri Lanka is all set to host India for 3 ODIs and 3 T20Is in July, 2021. The star players of the Indian national cricket team’s limited-overs squad namely captain Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami will be missing the IND vs SL series as they will be busy with the Test side for their long English summer comprising of the World Test Championship final against New Zealand and the subsequent five-match Test series against England.
This limited-overs series against Sri Lanka will be a great test of India’s bench strength and it would be an amazing opportunity for the hosts to register a series win over their neighbours in a long time. It is expected to be an exciting contest both in the ODIs and T20I matches.
All the ODI and T20I matches will be played at the R.Premadasa Stadium in Colombo in order to take care of the covid-19 protocols and create a bio-secure bubble environment easily.
This upcoming India match cricket series will be telecasted on Sony Tens Network
In the absence of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan has been appointed as the India captain while Bhuvneshwar Kumar has been named his deputy for the limited-overs tour to Sri Lanka. India has handed maiden call-ups to the likes of Devdutt Padikkal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Nitish Rana, Chetan Sakariya and Krishnappa Gowtham. It will also be a big opportunity for Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Prithvi Shaw, Deepak Chahar and the other youngsters to showcase their talent at the grand stage.
Shikhar Dhawan (Captain), Prithvi Shaw, Devdutt Padikkal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Suryakumar Yadav, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Nitish Rana, Ishan Kishan (Wicket-keeper), Sanju Samson (Wicket-keeper), Yuzvendra Chahal, Rahul Chahar, K Gowtham, Krunal Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy, Bhuvneshwar Kumar (Vice-captain), Deepak Chahar, Navdeep Saini, Chetan Sakariya.
With Ravi Shastri busy with the Test contingent in England, former India captain Rahul Dravid has been named as the India head coach for the Sri Lanka tour.
In the 165 ODI matches, India are winning this head to head battle with 91 wins and Sri Lanka have emerged victorious on 6 occasions while 11 games have ended without a result. On the other hand, in the shortest format of the game, India are once again ahead with 13 T20I wins while Sri Lanka have won 5 matches.
During the last bilateral series between these two teams, India registered a brilliant 2-0 T20I series win in January 2020. India has always had the upper hand over Sri Lanka across the three formats of the game.
Former India legendary batsman Sachin Tendulkar owns the record of most runs scored in SL vs IND ODI as he has recorded a total of 3113 runs in 84 matches that includes 17 fifties and 8 centuries. Sri Lanka’s Sanath Jayasuriya is second on the list with a fabulous tally of 2899 runs at an average of 36.23. Former Lankan legendary duo of Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene has smashed 2700 and 2666 runs respectively in the Sri Lanka vs India one-day cricket history. The fifth name on the list belongs to former India national cricket team captain MS Dhoni having scored 2383 runs in 67 ODIs against Sri Lanka. The Lankan batsmen have enjoyed the upper hand over India in 50-overs cricket.
Former Sri Lanka legendary spinner Muttiah Muralitharan has bagged a total of 74 wickets in 63 matches against India with best bowling figures of 7 for 30. The next name on the list belongs to former Lankan left-arm speedster Chaminda Vaas who has taken 70 wickets in 61 SL vs IND ODI matches. For India, Zaheer Khan has the most wickets against Sri Lanka in 50-overs cricket as he has picked up an amazing total of 66 wickets. Indian duo of Harbhajan Singh and Ajit Agarkar has scalped 61 and 49 wickets respectively in the SL vs IND ODI cricket history. In the wickets category, there are more Indian names in the list in comparison to Sri Lanka.
India’s regular captain Virat Kohli has scored the most number of T20I runs against Sri Lanka having smashed 339 runs in 6 innings at a strike-rate of 140.66. The Indian duo of KL Rahul and Shikhar Dhawan have scored 295 and 289 runs respectively in SL vs IND T20I cricket history and will once again be top pick in Dream11 Prediction. Surprisingly, there are no Sri Lankan batsmen in the top five run-getters in Sri Lanka vs India T20I cricket. Rohit Sharma has recorded a total of 289 runs in 15 T20I matches against Sri Lanka while Suresh Raina has scored 265 runs in 12 T20Is. For Sri Lanka, Kumar Sangakkara has the most T20I runs against India having smashed 235 runs in just 4 matches.
India’s leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal is the highest wicket-taker in the Sri Lanka vs India T20I history as he has picked up 14 wickets in 6 matches. Indian spin duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Kuldeep Yadav has bagged 13 and 10 wickets respectively against Sri Lanka so far in the shortest format. For Sri Lanka, pacer Dushmantha Chameera has picked up the most T20I wickets against India as he has scalped 10 wickets in 9 matches. India’s right-arm pacer Shardul Thakur has also taken 9 wickets in SL vs IND T20I cricket history. As per the records, spinners have dominated the T20I matches between Sri Lanka and India so far.
Even in the absence of their star players, India is looking as a potent side that has the ability to beat Sri Lanka in both the ODI and T20I series.