5 players to watch out for in the India-Sri Lanka ODI series
After a hard-fought test series which was affected by rain in Kolkata and by pollution in Delhi, India managed to beat Sri Lanka 1-0.
A lot of records were created in the series with Ravichandran Ashwin becoming the fastest bowler in the history of test cricket to get 300 wickets. Adding to that, Virat Kohli kept piling on the runs at will and crossed 50 international hundreds.
Sri Lanka, on the other hand, proved to be resilient and gave good competition to India in the Test series. From their point of view, it was pleasing to see the likes of Angelo Mathews, Dinesh Chandimal and Dhananjaya de Silva get runs.
Looking ahead to the three-match ODI series starting from 10th December, India have rested Virat Kohli keeping the tour of South Africa in mind and in his absence, India will be led by Rohit Sharma in the limited-overs series. Sri Lanka will also have a new captain as they stripped Upul Tharanga off captaincy and have decided to go in with Thisara Perera as the captain for the ODIs and T20Is.
Here’s looking at 5 players to watch out for in the upcoming 3 match ODI series:
Rohit Sharma
Everyone is aware of what Rohit Sharma is capable of. When he is on song, he’s unstoppable. In home conditions against a Sri Lankan bowling attack sans Lasith Malinga, one can expect Rohit to dominate proceedings at the top of the order.
He looked in good form in the Test series as well where he was equally good against the spinners and fast bowlers. And one can expect him to continue his good run in the ODI series as well.
An interesting aspect which people would be closely watching out for is how his batting would be while he is the captain of the side. With Kohli rested and Rohit becoming the captain, it is yet to be seen whether that might have any impact on his performance as a batsman.
Looking at the quality of the opposition and with the pitches expected to be flat, Rohit should be able to dominate despite the added responsibility of being the captain of the side. With 6207 runs in 161 matches with an average of 44.34 with 15 hundreds (2 double hundreds, one against Sri Lanka), we can expect some big runs from his bat in this series.