Team India lost the opening encounter against Sri Lanka, India's inexperienced team will look to recover in the second game against Bangladesh in the Nidahas Twenty20 Trophy, on Thursday.
Sri Lanka, who have performed miserably against India the past six months, surprised fans with their win over India, which came on the back of Kusal Perera’s 37-ball 66. In the absence of key players like Virat Kohli, the young and relatively inexperienced Indian playing XI faltered. Here’s the predicted playing XI for the second T20I. However, Rohit’s opening partner Shikhar Dhawan is probably in the best form of his life. After performing exceedingly well in South Africa, Dhawan delivered in Sri Lanka too. The right-hander scored a fine 90 off only 49 deliveries.
Meanwhile, in absence of MS Dhoni, this is the best time to test Rishabh Pant’s potential. Given that Pant has proved his mettle on several occasions in domestic cricket, but has got very few opportunities on the international level, this could be a good time to give him an extended rope, after he scored only 23 runs in the first game.
Veteran keeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik has been more than decent with the gloves and missed very few chances behind the stumps. With the bat, he has not got the opportunity to face quite a few deliveries, as was seen in both South Africa and Sri Lanka.
India: Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Suresh Raina, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant, Dinesh Karthik, Vijay Shankar, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jaydev Unadkat and Mohammed Siraj