Sri Lanka tour to India (Feb 2016)

[zwarrior]

Fixtures: 3 T20I

Tue Feb 9 (20 ovs)19:30 local (14:00 GMT)
1st T20I - India v Sri Lanka - Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Pune

Fri Feb 12 (20 ovs)19:30 local (14:00 GMT)
2nd T20I - India v Sri Lanka - JSCA International Stadium Complex, Ranchi

Sun Feb 14 (20 ovs)19:30 local (14:00 GMT)
3rd T20I - India v Sri Lanka - Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium, Visakhapatnam

Spoiler: Sri Lanka Squad

Dinesh Chandimal (capt), Tillakaratne Dilshan, Seekuge Prasanna, Milinda Siriwardana, Danushka Gunathilaka, Thisara Perera, Dasun Shanaka, Asela Gunaratne, Chamara Kapugedera, Dushmantha Chameera, Dilhara Fernando, Kasun Rajitha, Binura Fernando, Sachithra Senanayake, Jeffrey Vandersay

Spoiler: India Squad

MS Dhoni (capt), Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Manish Pandey, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Jasprit Bumrah, Ashish Nehra, Harbhajan Singh, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Pawan Negi.

 

[Aalay]

It is surprising that Sri Lanka would send such a weak squad to a place where T20 WC is being played in a month. I was hoping to see a better squad so that both teams can benefit from this series.

 

[Targaryen]

It is surprising that Sri Lanka would send such a weak squad to a place where T20 WC is being played in a month. I was hoping to see a better squad so that both teams can benefit from this series.

Sri Lankan conditions are quite similar to Indian conditions. I wonder, they don't want to display their strengths and weaknesses by sending an ultimate WC team. I'm pretty much sure that their squad will have almost all the players who have played IPL (except those retired ones).

 

[zwarrior]

Malinga, Kulasekara, Herath, Pradeep and Mathews are injured

Fast bowler Dilhara Fernando picked in Sri Lanka T20 squad for India series | Cricket | ESPN Cricinfo

 

[Ohm]

Sri Lankan conditions are quite similar to Indian conditions. I wonder, they don't want to display their strengths and weaknesses by sending an ultimate WC team. I'm pretty much sure that their squad will have almost all the players who have played IPL (except those retired ones).

Well only two plans could work effectively if you are having an opportunity to play a series in and against the same country that will host world cup just few weeks before it starts. First one is send your preliminary squad and do it your worst but adopt with the conditions well, and then come like a surprise package when main tournament starts (like India did last year in ODI world cup).

The second one is, send your second squad and give those players some extra warm-up and the senior players some rest ahead of the world cup. That's what I think Sri Lanka are trying to do here by excluding Mathews, Malinga and Herath who are more reliable and who know the Indian conditions so well that they perhaps may perform their best every time they come to perform in India. And this seems quite obvious as Sri Lanka have loosed a little bit of stability at this stage in International cricket with the departure of Sangakkara and Jayawardene. So they're certainly looking to find a steady team and maybe willing to try out few combinations before they come here to play at big level.

Malinga, Kulasekara, Herath, Pradeep and Mathews are injured

Fast bowler Dilhara Fernando picked in Sri Lanka T20 squad for India series | Cricket | ESPN Cricinfo

Well I just typed that and then saw your post.

 

[Targaryen]

Malinga, Kulasekara, Herath, Pradeep and Mathews are injured

Fast bowler Dilhara Fernando picked in Sri Lanka T20 squad for India series | Cricket | ESPN Cricinfo

I doubt they have any sort of injury. As said by Rabbit, they are resting those players who are consistent and are quite aware of Indian conditions.

 

[zwarrior]

I doubt they have any sort of injury. As said by Rabbit, they are resting those players who are consistent and are quite aware of Indian conditions.

In the link I posted, it's given that they are out due to injury.

 

[Ohm]

I doubt they have any sort of injury. As said by Rabbit, they are resting those players who are consistent and are quite aware of Indian conditions.

I said that because I wasn't aware of the fact that those players are injured. The news might be 100% true as well since news are meant to tell only true stories. If Sri Lanka are not to play their senior players and instead they want to rest them, it would be incredibly dumb if they declare their players as injured just to hide that they are actually being rested.

 

[Targaryen]

In the link I posted, it's given that they are out due to injury.

In that case, I would say that they are going through very tough situation these days. Losing the T20I series against NZ, suspension of in-form player and now these injuries.

I do realise that there are very few Lankan players who can play well in the Indian "pitches".

 

[zwarrior]

Sri Lanka T20I moved from Delhi to Ranchi | Cricket | ESPN Cricinfo

 

[Givemeahug786]

India should not select strong team but give chance to Axer,shreyes,pandey etc.dilhara f.includs because matthews and malinga or Lakmal not in the team.plus India also has 36 year bowler in the team.R.P Singh deserves selection.

 

[zwarrior]

India should not select strong team but give chance to Axer,shreyes,pandey etc.dilhara f.includs because matthews and malinga or Lakmal in the team.plus India also has 36 year bowler in the team.R.P Singh deserves selection.

I feel it's not the right time to experiment by giving a chance to Iyer, pandey and lot. We have to test our present team and find out best combination for WC. This is very important as WC is nearing. Moreover there is no place for Iyer as we have 3 openers already and all are doing well. As I said before, we have to test our team and not experiment.

 

[zwarrior]

Virat Kohli rested for Sri Lanka T20s, Pawan Negi called up | Cricket | ESPN Cricinfo

Indian squad announced.

Is there any necessity for Negi ? We have jadeja doing the same role with perfection. And if we want more spinners, yuvi and Raina is there for backup along with a mainstream bowler Ashwin.

 

[Givemeahug786]

23 year old Delhi left arm spinner deserves more coz his ability to make runs in the form of 4's when you need it.46wickets in 56 t20i game with 479 runs good
For him to get selects at ranchi game or elsewhere, with negi in Indian team, recently nz andWINDIES selects 3spinner for world t20 so its good idea India prepare for their option in advance, may be amit Mishra returns on Feb. 16, 2016

Good that India dropped Mann and dhawan rishi plus umesh.I am not much impressed with HP who gave extra 1.3 over per match (close game in t20) by sending purposeful
Wide.4 and 6 saves yograj's son but I would like sarfaraz khan or all rounder in place of youvraj (wrong choice for t20 format )

Selector should not selects Mann other than multiday game he not fits at all.

 

[Aalay]

A bit of weird selection of Negi there. He is just there as a back-up for Jadeja I think as Harbhajan is for Ashwin. However, I want to know what happened with Akshar Patel? He had a very good Vijay Hazare trophy for Gujarat being 2nd highest wicket take after Bumrah and also made about 220 runs. I can understand that Dhoni would like to try new players as he said after the end of T20 series because he was tired of trying the same bowlers again and again and getting the same results. However, then what is the point of bringing Bhuvneshwar Kumar back? He has been very poor for quite a while now. Can't help but think that this should be Bhuvneshwar's last chance to impress the selectors. If he doesn't perform in this series against a weak Sri Lankan team, I really don't think he should be there in WT20 squad.

They could have easily tried someone who had a decent Syed Mushtaq Ali trophy. Someone like Dhawal Kulkarni or Nathu Singh. Also hopefully, our 5,6,7 gets a chance to bat in this series so we can see where Hardik and Yuvraj are with their batting. Yes Yuvraj did well in that last T20 game vs Australia. However, he was struggling before that 2 half volleys that he got in the last over. As I have said before, the advantage for him is that now he will be in much more familiar conditions so he doesn't have to worry about that extra bounce. However, he still needs to show that he is capable of hitting those big blows at the back end of the inning. I am very excited to see how Hardik does, once he gets a chance. Manish is of course there as a back-up for Virat.

Rohit
Dhawan/Rahane
Suresh Raina
Manish Pandey
Yuvraj Singh
MS Dhoni
Hardik Pandya
Jadeja
Ashwin
Bumrah
Nehra