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Recent Match Report - India vs Sri Lanka 2nd T20I 2021

Recent Match Report  India vs Sri Lanka 2nd T20I 2021
Sri Lanka captain Dasun Shanaka opts to bowl first, expecting some juice in the Khettarama pitch
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Sri Lanka captain Dasun Shanaka opts to bowl first, expecting some juice in the Khettarama pitch

Toss: Sri Lanka opt to bowl vs India

A severely depleted India side named four debutants for the second T20I, with batters Devdutt Padikkal and Ruturaj Gaikwad, plus allrounder Nitish Rana, and seamer Chetan Sakariya, all set to play their first international in the format.

With eight members of the squad unavailable for this game after having been placed in isolation as Krunal Pandya's first-line contacts, India are substantially short of batting depth. Prithvi Shaw, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, and both Pandya brothers are out. This means that India may have the likes of Bhuvneshwar Kumar - who is a bowler who bats a bit - as high as No. 6 in their line-up. India's batting will be on show first, with Sri Lanka captain Dasun Shanaka having chosen to bowl first at the toss, expecting there to be some juice in the used pitch early on.

Sri Lanka, meanwhile, made two changes to their XI. With their top-scorer from Sunday, Charith Asalanka, having picked up an injury, Sadeera Samarawickrama comes into the XI in his stead. Allrounder Ramesh Mendis makes his debut, replacing Ashen Bandara in the XI.

India won the first T20 comfortably. With this match - already postponed a day following the news that Krunal tested positive on Tuesday - played under such unusual circumstances, a substantial test of their bench strength and nerve awaits.

India: 1 Shikhar Dhawan (capt), 2 Ruturaj Gaikwad, 3 Devdutt Padikkal, 4 Sanju Samson (wk), 5 Nitish Rana, 6 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 7 Kuldeep Yadav, 8 Rahul Chahar, 9 Navdeep Saini, 10 Chetan Sakariya, 11 Varun Chakravarthy

Sri Lanka: 1 Avishka Fernando, 2 Minod Bhanuka (wk), 3 Sadeera Samarawickrama, 4 Dhananjaya de Silva, 5 Ramesh Mendis, 6 Dasun Shanaka (capt), 7 Wanindu Hasaranga, 8 Chamika Karunaratne, 9 Isuru Udana, 10 Dushmantha Chameera, 11 Akila Dananjaya

Andrew Fidel Fernando is ESPNcricinfo's Sri Lanka correspondent. @afidelf

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