India are up against a familiar foe in Sri Lanka in their crucial Super 4 match after suffering an agonisingly close defeat at the hands of arch-rivals Pakistan.
The biggest talking point ahead of the game was the fact that veteran Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin made the cut in the eleven to face Sri Lanka ahead of Ravi Bishnoi.
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Indian skipper Rohit Sharma might have sprung for this move as the experienced bowler from Chennai has a tremendous track record of performance while bowling to left-handers.
The Sri Lankan team up against India is made up of a number of left-handers and the tricky spinner might come good. And if he does, as he has in the past, it would definitely give Indian an advantage in this must-win game.
Indian lost the toss and were put to bat by the Sri Lankan unit.
“With the dew, we need to learn the lines, the lengths and the boundaries well. The grass is lesser tonight. It looks drier, and we have one change on the basis of the Sri Lankan team. Ashwin comes in for Bishnoi,” said Sharma after the toss.
Sharma mentioned that he would have opted to put the opposition team to bat first had the coin toss swung the way of the Indians.
“We would have bowled first as well. The pitch doesn’t change too much just gets better to bat later. We batted pretty well in the last game but fell a little short. It gives us an opportunity to come out and do well.”
Sharma went on to say that the format of the Asia Cup has been aiding the team in their build-up to the T20 World Cup.
“This is how the WC will be played and we need to get into the mindset to get under pressure. Can’t lose to afford many games,” the captain of the Indian team said.
Reflecting on the narrow loss to Pakistan in the previous match, Sharma said “It was a tight game, games like this will help us learn a lot more. We got to learn a lot more when you are defending a score like that.”
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