Colombo weather forecast today: What are the chances of rain during IND vs SL 1st ODI?
After completing a whitewash in the T20Is, Team India will square off against Sri Lanka in a three-match ODI affair. The first match of the series will be played at the R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on Friday, August 2.
The Men in Blue last played an ODI series in December 2023 against South Africa. Rohit Sharma and company won the series 2-1. The upcoming series will mark the beginning of the preparation for the 2025 Champions Trophy. The new support staff, including head coach Gautam Gambhir, will bring in new ideas, and it will be interesting to see how senior cricketers Rohit and Virat Kohli adapt to them.
Sri Lanka, on the other hand, despite battling injury issues, will be desperate to bounce back from their T20 drubbing and hand India a punch in the series opener. The onus will be on senior cricketers to shoulder responsibility and lift the team's spirit.
As two Asian heavyweights go up against each other, fans will likely turn up in huge numbers to witness a cracking contest. However, the weather looks gloomy for a full 50-over match.
According to Accuweather, there are chances of thunderstorms in Colombo in the lead-up to the game. The forecast suggests thunderstorms from 4-6 pm local time and 7-10 pm local time. Moreover, there are predictions of rainfall throughout the game with heavy cloud cover.
The temperature will hover between 32 and 28 degrees Celsius during the game. However, the actual feeling will be approximately four to five degrees more than the original temperature due to high humidity, which is expected to be around 82 percent.
"It's not a practice ground this, it's still an international game" - Indian skipper Rohit Sharma on preparation for Champions Trophy 2025
Fresh from the 2024 T20 World Cup win, Team India will shift their focus to the Champions Trophy 2025. The upcoming three ODIs will kickstart the Men in Blue's preparations for the event, which will return after almost eight years.
However, skipper Rohit Sharma asserted that they will take it as an international game and not as a practice match. Addressing reporters on the eve of the match, Rohit said (via Cricbuzz):
"See, we get asked questions like these a lot. The World Cup is coming, is this preparation for the World Cup? The Champions Trophy is coming, is this preparation for the Champions Trophy? See, it's not a practice ground this, it's still an international game."
"We will keep in our mind what we would like to achieve as a team but this is by no means preparation or practice or anything like that. We want to come here and play good cricket and get something out of the series, it is as simple as that," he added.
What should be India's combination for the first ODI vs Sri Lanka? Let us know in the comments.