Team India will be up against Sri Lanka in the second ODI of the three-match series on Sunday, August 4. India will be disappointed that they didn't get the result in their favour in the series opener given they were there and thereabouts but Sri Lanka just kept hanging around like a bad smell in the game and eventually tied the match. India needed just one run to win off 14 deliveries with one wicket remaining but weren't able to get across the line. However, the Men in Blue have an opportunity to make amends on Sunday.
Indian captain and the team management will hope for a bit more from the middle order as, despite a couple of small but key partnerships, they never looked like taking the game away from Sri Lanka. The moment the KL Rahul-Axar Patel partnership was broken, it all fell apart for the visitors. That is something that the Indian team needs to be wary of, considering the start skipper Rohit Sharma provided.
Similarly, Sri Lanka too have their woes in their batting department. Both teams bowled well on a tough surface but their batters will need to pull their socks up a bit to push each other. There were a couple of individual performances but to win games of cricket, especially ODIs, they need at least one or two of their batters to play 35-40 overs.
My Dream11 team for SL vs IND 2nd ODI
Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Mendis, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Shubman Gill, Charith Asalanka, Shivam Dube, Dunith Wellalage, Kuldeep Yadav, Maheesh Theekshana, Arshdeep Singh
Probable Playing XIs
Sri Lanka: Pathum Nissanka, Avishka Fernando, Kusal Mendis(w), Sadeera Samarawickrama, Charith Asalanka(c), Janith Liyanage, Dunith Wellalage, Jeffrey Vandersay, Maheesh Theekshana, Asitha Fernando, Mohamed Shiraz
India: Rohit Sharma(c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul/Rishabh Pant(w), Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Arshdeep Singh, Washington Sundar
