3 things to watch out for in India vs Sri Lanka 2024 ODI series ft. KL Rahul | Streaming live on Sony LIV
Having clinched the T20I series 3-0, Team India will now take on Sri Lanka in a three-match ODI series. All three ODIs will be played at the R.Premadasa Stadium in Colombo from Friday, August 2, to Wednesday, August 7. The Men in Blue were brilliant during crunch situations in the T20I series and will also be keen to continue the great work in the ODI format.
While Suryakumar Yadav led Team India in the T20Is, Rohit Sharma is back to captain the team in the ODI series. It was initially reported that the senior cricketer would be rested for the series along with Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah. But while Bumrah has been given a break for the Sri Lanka tour, Rohit and Kohli will feature in the three-match one-day series.
As India and Sri Lanka prepare for the one-dayers to be played in Colombo, we look at three things to watch out for in the series.
#1 Rishabh Pant's first ODI series after horrific accident
Team India's wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant made a successful comeback to competitive cricket during the Indian Premier League (IPL), captaining Delhi Capitals (DC). Since then, he has featured in the T20 World Cup in the West Indies and the United States and the T20s in Sri Lanka, producing mixed performances.
When it comes to one-dayers, though, the series in Sri Lanka will mark his first appearance in the ODI format since November 2022. Pant last featured in one-dayers for India in a rain-marred three-match series in New Zealand, which the Kiwis won 1-0. Before that, he had slammed a brilliant 125* against England in the Manchester ODI in July 2022.
When he played that superb knock at Old Trafford, many experts felt it was the coming of age of Pant in the white-ball format. Destiny, however, had other plans in store and the left-hander has only played two one-day innings since that special performance. Pant would be disappointed with his lack of consistency in T20Is since his comeback and would be keen to make a bigger impact in the ODI series.
#2 How KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer perform after T20I snub
Both KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer were left out of India's T20 World Cup squad despite possessing reasonably impressive records in T20Is. Rahul has featured in 72 matches and has 2265 runs at an average of 37.75 and a strike rate of 139.12, with two hundreds and 22 fifties. Shreyas has 1104 runs from 51 games at an average of 30.66 and a strike rate of 136.12, with eight fifties.
Because they have been in and out of the Test squads as well, both Rahul and Shreyas will be keen to make a big impact in the one-day series against Sri Lanka. Both of them had impressive World Cup campaigns although India ended up losing the final to Australia. Also, this is the one format where the selectors feel that Rahul and Shreyas are most productive.
If we look at the record of the two players in one-dayers, they are excellent. Rahul has 2820 runs in 75 matches at an average of 50.35, with seven hundreds and 18 fifties. Shreyas has 2383 runs in 59 matches at an average of 49.64, with five tons and 18 half-centuries. However, with the number of ODIs being cut down in the wake of T20I's growing popularity, Rahul and Shreyas will be in for a challenge.
#3 Can Sri Lanka put their recent T20I horror show behind them?
On paper, the result of the India-Sri Lanka T20I series reads 3-0 in favor of the visitors. However, it could well have been 3-0 in Lanka's favor had they held their nerves at crucial moments during the series. In all three games, Sri Lanka were in a position to push for victory, but their batting crumbled inexplicably.
In the first T20I, they were 140-1 chasing 214 but ended up losing nine for 30 to be all out for 170. In the second match as well, they crumbled from 80-1 to 161-9. In the third game, they needed 30 off 30 balls with nine wickets in hand. Somehow, they managed to lose it from that near-impregnable position. India dragged the match into the Super Over and won it.
There was hardly any gap between the T20Is and the ODIs, so Sri Lanka would not have had a lot of time to recover mentally from three consecutive setbacks. Most of the players from the T20Is, including skipper Charith Asalanka, who had a horror run with the bat, will be part of the ODIs as well. Can Sri Lanka find a way to lift themselves and challenge the might of India in the ODI series?
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