The third and final T20I of the series between Sri Lanka and India will be played on July 29, 2021, in the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo. The series between the two sides stands at 1-1 after the home side won the second match on Wednesday, July 28 by 4 wickets.
India had to field the 11 available players they had in the second T20I after 8 players had to be isolated after being deemed close contacts of Krunal Pandya, who had tested COVID-19 positive on the morning of the second T20I match.
With those players being ruled out of the entire series including the third and final T20I, Team COC presents to you the Predicted Team India playing XI for the last encounter.
Ruturaj Gaikwad and Shikhar Dhawan had given India a good start on a tough pitch in the second T20I. Both of them laid down a good platform for the remaining batsmen to build upon as it was evident that it was a slow and low surface.
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Devdutt Padikkal looked at ease on his debut and played amazingly well, only getting out in order to up the run rate. However, one person who was disappointed was Sanju Samson, who time and again has wasted opportunities he has gotten to impress the selectors. He needlessly was bowled for 7 runs, while he could have done more if he had stuck until the end of innings.
Nitish Rana did his best in his debut as well, given the pitch was just too slow and batsmen had to put their own power behind the big hits. Rana batting out of position didn’t help him either.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Chetan Sakariya did their best, but giving away boundaries at the wrong time while defending a small total proved to be their undoing.
However, there might be a change in the Indian playing XI as Navdeep Saini seemingly hurt his shoulder during the Sri Lanka knock and may potentially miss the third T20I. This means one of the reserve players who were added to the main squad might come in as his replacement.
While there are pacers in the Indian squad- Ishan Porel, Sandeep Warrier, Simarjeet Singh, and Arshdeep Singh, India might prefer to go in with spinner R Sai Kishore, who can come in handy on the slow Colombo pitch.
Rahul Chahar, Varun Chakravarthy, and Kuldeep Yadav did their job brilliantly and if India had 15-20 more runs to their total, the match could have been more interesting. Kuldeep picked two wickets, Rahul and Varun took one each.
The match is expected to be an interesting one given the winner of the match will also pocket the series. Sri Lanka will look to win the match and series and save some face, while India winning the match and series will just be too good for a team showcasing the bench strength.
COC Predicted Team India Playing XI for the third T20I:
Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shikhar Dhawan (C), Devdutt Padikkal, Sanju Samson (WK), Nitish Rana, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, R Sai Kishore, Kuldeep Yadav, Rahul Chahar, Chetan Sakariya, Varun Chakravarthy
