Sri Lanka vs India, 2nd T20I: Hosts hope to keep the series afloat

The idea of a touring Sri Lanka while the main squad gets ready for the England series was floated keeping in mind not just the business interests but also having a taste of international T20I cricket ahead of the T20 World Cup.

But the tour ended up throwing some extra bonuses, including the form of Suryakumar Yadav, which has been impressing enough to fetch him a ticket of England. Prithvi Shaw, who was with the Indian team on the tour of Australia, too will accompany SKY to England. Shaw though has not been able to generate enough excitement so far and would want to have some runs under the belt before leaving for UK. The second T20I provides him the golden chance to do that.

India are in the driver’s seat in the series. And have played like a team with the bowlers compensating for the lack of flourish from the batters at death. Shikhar Dhawan’s men would want to flex some muscle in the batting department. Somehow on the tour so far, despite all their flamboyance, they have failed to intimidate the opposition with a mountain on the board.

The bowling department looks as solid as the management would have wanted. Bhuvneshwar Kumar seems to have found the touch in his death bowling and spinners have been tight and effective.

Given the form of the bowlers and the firepower in the batting, they will once again be posing enough questions for the hosts who would have the daunting task of taking the series to the final game. In failing to do so, they will once again be allowing the tourists to test the bench in the final match thereby affirming the belief that the team which was sent for the series was anything but a second stringent side.