As Indian coach selection drama still continues, the focus now shifts back to cricket. India will play thre Tests, five ODIs and one T20 during their tour of Sri Lanka, starting with the first Test on July 26.
The Indian Test team has been fairly consistent and have not seen too many changes over the last couple of years, with the squad selected for the current tour not that different from the winning combination of 2015. One minor setback saw the injured Murali Vijay replaced with Shikhar Dhawan at the top of the order.
India had a great home season earlier this year, with a win over the touring Aussies, and will start as favourites in both the Test and ODI series.
Sri Lanka find themselves at the opposite end of the spectrum.
Angelo Mathews resigned as the captain after the shocking ODI series loss against Zimbabwe earlier this month. Their batting is inexperienced and their bowling relies heavily on veteran spinner Ranganna Herath. They scraped to a four-wicket win against Zimbabwe, and for most of the final innings the game was in balance, before Zimbabwe’s inexperience shone through.
The series against India will be a big test for Dinesh Chandimal’s side. Still, India will be wary, their last Test coming against Australia, and most of their Test specialists having not played much cricket over the past few months. The team will be rusty and need to guard against any complacency.
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Rohit Sharma hasn’t played a Test for India for a long time and Lokesh Rahul is returning from a long injury layoff. Mohammed Shami is also returning to the squad after a long break, so Sri Lanka will be hoping to cash in on the visitors’ lack of match form.
India also face a few selection headaches for the first Test. In the 2015 series, India employed fivebowlers and played Stuart Binny in a couple of Tests as the pace all-rounder. It will be interesting to see if Virat Kohli will employ the same strategy with Hardik Pandya in the squad this time.
The Indian thinktank need to sort out the bowling combination as well. Ravi Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja will start as the premier spinners in the XI, with Kuldeep Yadav as the backup, but the pace selection is not as straightforward. Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Ishant Sharma are the four pacers fighting for two spots.
Yadav was India’s best quick during the home season, while Kumar is the only one to take five-wicket hauls over the past couple of years. Before his injury, Shami was regarded as the country’s premier new-ball bowler and Sharma is the most experienced bowler in the squad.
It’s worth remembering India are ranked number one in the world and are expected to win this series comfortably. For the hosts though, this series will be a great opportunity to turn things around. The Sri Lankan team has struggled in all formats over the last year or so and they are still in the rebuilding phase, which began couple years ago after the retirement of Kumar Sangakkara.
In spite of the huge gulf between the sides, this series promises to be closely contested.
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