Indian skipper Shikhar Dhawan won the toss in the series decider in Colombo and opted to bat first against Sri Lanka. The series is presently tied at 1-1 and the hosts will be aiming to end their barren run against a depleted Indian side.
India handed debut caps to one more player for the final tie - Sai Kishore as he replaces an injured Navdeep Saini. Saini, who neither batted nor bowled in the second T20I had hurt his elbow during fielding.
India had earlier won the opener of the three-match T20I series defeating Sri Lanka by 38 runs in Colombo before the hosts bounce back to claim a 4-wicket win against a depleted visiting side. India had missed nine of their key players after all-rounder Krunal Pandya had tested positive on Tuesday which not only postponed the second T20I game by a day, but put eight of his close contacts in isolation, ruling them out of the remaining games. Those eight included first-team players like Prithvi Shaw, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Chahar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Manish Pandey, and Hardik.
India hence handed out debut T20I caps to four players - Devdutt Padikkal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Chetan Sakariya and Nitish Rana.
"We are gonna bat first. Our bowling is quite strong. We are just focusing on today's game, we are not going to take any pressure from the past. He (Saini) is injured. We've got Sandeep Warrier," said Dhawan.
Dasun Shanaka couldn't be more happier with India's decsion to bat first.
"We are happy to bowl first. Winning is very important, it'll be very nice. Isuru Udana is out, Pathum Nissanka comes in," he said.
India (Playing XI): Shikhar Dhawan(c), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Devdutt Padikkal, Sanju Samson(w), Nitish Rana, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Rahul Chahar, Sandeep Warrier, Chetan Sakariya, Varun Chakravarthy
Sri Lanka (Playing XI): Avishka Fernando, Minod Bhanuka(w), Sadeera Samarawickrama, Dasun Shanaka(c), Dhananjaya de Silva, Wanindu Hasaranga, Ramesh Mendis, Chamika Karunaratne, Pathum Nissanka, Akila Dananjaya, Dushmantha Chameera
