Captain Shikhar Dhawan and wicketkeeper-batsman Ishan Kishan, for example, impressed in their ODI debuts to secure a comprehensive seven-wicket win for India against Sri Lanka in the first match at the R Premadasa Stadium on Sunday.
Kishan celebrated his 23rd birthday with 59 runs while Dhawan remained unbeaten on 86 as India chased down a target of 263 with 13.2 overs to spare.
Electing to bat first, Sri Lanka struggled for pace but still managed 262–9, largely due to an unbeaten 43 from number eight batsman Chamika Karunaratne.
Yuzvendra Chahal gave the hosts a steady start before dismissing Avishka Fernando (33) on his first ball.
Charit Aslanka (38) and skipper Dasun Sanaka (39) were the other Sri Lankan batsmen who got off to a good start but could not convert them into big innings, which ended up hurting them.
Chahal and fellow spinner Kuldeep Yadav took two wickets each and took Sri Lanka past 250 before a late counter-attack from Karunaratne.
In contrast, India got off to a good start with two top-order batsmen scoring half-centuries to make a difference in the competition.
Prithvi Shaw led India’s strong reply with 43 off 24 balls as India crossed the 50-mark in the fifth over.
After Shaw’s dismissal, Kishan continued the attack as he completed his fifty in 33 balls.
He hit two sixes and eight fours before falling to spinner Lakshan Sandakan.
Dhawan, who by then was satisfied with rotating the strike, batted intelligently and held on till the target was achieved.
Along with regular captain Virat Kohli and several frontline players for the five-Test series against Joe Root’s side in England, Dhawan is leading India’s second team in Sri Lanka.
His counterpart Sanaka, who began his captaincy stint with a loss, will be expected to return to the three-match series when the team returns to the field for the second ODI on Tuesday.
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