New look Team India under the leadership of Hardik Pandya without the regular captain Rohit Sharma and key players like Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja, Jasprit Bumrah, KL Rahul and M Shami are at level with Asia Cup 2022 champions Sri Lanka after winning the first game of the three-match series and losing the second one. With a relatively inexperienced bowling and batting attack one can say that Men in Blue are putting up a great fight against the Lankan side, however, according to many cricket experts except for one or two veteran players there is no place for others in the T20 side at least which means that Hardik Pandya’s side need to find a way of winning the matches with this team.
The match went down to the wire but it is Sri Lanka who won the second T20I by 16 runs.
Scorecard https://t.co/Fs33WcZ9ag #TeamIndia | #INDvSL pic.twitter.com/YoE4hvgZoA
— BCCI (@BCCI) January 5, 2023
Even though India won the first game by just two runs, it was not a thrilling contest as it looked like both the teams tried their level best to lose the game even after being in a position to claim the match. Coming into the game with a 1-0 lead in the series, Indian bowlers were thrashed all over the park in Pune by Sri Lanka’s top order, however, Hardik’s side managed to bounce back on the excellent bowling spells by Yuzvendra Chahal and Axar Patel. Arshdeep Singh and Shivam Mavi made silly mistakes to make sure that India had to chase big total while Umran Malik did his job of taking wickets and being expensive.
The top order collapsed like pack of cards during the chase and it was sheer brilliance by Axar and Suryakumar Yadav which helped India get so close to the target. In the next game, India will hope that they claim the series by winning the all-important series decider.
What to expect in the IND vs SL 3rd T20I?
Ishan Kishan and Shubman Gill need to fire at the top. Ishan will get a bigger rope as he has just scored a double ton in the ODI cricket, however, Gill will have to make way for captain Rohit in the next series. Umran Malik needs to continue his great form it is his sheer pace that is troubling the batters even on the Indian pitches.
