India aim to inflict whitewash against Sri Lanka

India sealed the series at the Eden Gardens where they had toil hard but eventually came around, securing a comfortable win at the end of the day.

Now with the series secured, Team India may opt for a handful of changes keeping the upcoming World Cup in mind, looking around for a few options in case of any injury in the long run-up to the showpiece event. 

India will be focusing on their top-order that has produced the fire in the series opener but came a cropper in the preceding game while they will also be desperate to seize the stranglehold if they manage to find themselves in one considering the fact that Sri Lanka escaped twice to pile up decent totals on the board.

Sri Lanka will need to rethink their batting unit, especially the middle-order, a unit that has misfired in both the games, that has been the pivotal factor to allow India make merry without breaking a sweat.

The bowlers did a good job for the visitors in the second game but it wasn’t enough to rein in the Indian batters considering the limited amount of runs they had at their disposal. This is going to be a battle of sheer tenacity to prove a point for the visitors while for the hosts this will be an opportunity to try and introduce a few unexpected names in the mix that would leave Sri Lanka stunned.

Venue Watch:

Going by the numbers it is hard to predict how the surface will be acting ad the venue has only hosted a solitary ODI till date where India battled West Indies and the latter were skittled for a paltry 104 allowing India to walk away with an emphatic victory.

Head-to-head:

Matches played: 164

India: 95

Sri Lanka: 57

Match Details:

India vs Sri Lanka

Greenfield Stadium, Thiruvananthapuram

15th January 2023

1:30 PM IST

Squads:

India:

Rohit Sharma (capt), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Hardik Pandya (vice-capt), Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umran Malik, Arshdeep Singh.

Sri Lanka:

Dasun Shanaka (Captain), Pathum Nissanka, Avishka Fernando, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Kusal Mendis (Vice Captain), Charith Asalanka, Dhananjaya de Silva, Wanindu Hasaranga, Ashen Bandara, Maheesh Theekshana, Chamika Karunaratne, Dilshan Madushanka, Kasun Rajitha, Nuwanidu Fernando (ODIs), Dunith Wellalage, Pramod Madushan, Lahiru Kumara