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India vs Sri Lanka 3rd ODI: Shikhar Dhawan elects to bat as 5 players make debut; 6 changes for tourists


This article was originally published in myKhel.com

Colombo, July 23: India captain Shikhar Dhawan won the toss and elected to bat first in the third and inconsequential one-day international match on Friday (July 23) here at R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo.

Having already won the series 2-0, India have decided to hand debut caps to five players and made six changes to their playing eleven. The last time Team India handed debut caps to five players in an ODI game was back in 1980 against Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) when five players made their ODI debuts for the national side.

After their inaugural ODI match, Team India handed debut caps to Dilip Doshi, Kirti Azad, Roger Binny, Sandeep Patil, and Tirumalai Srinivasan in December 1980. Sanju Samson, Nitish Rana, Chetan Sakariya, K Gowtham, and Rahul Chahar were handed their debut caps while pacer Navdeep Saini became the sixth player to make it to the playing XI on July 23.

They both deserved a chance F*** u management pic.twitter.com/A2au2i6zMS

After winning the toss, India captain Shikhar Dhawan did his trademark thigh-five and later spoke about the changes team is going to make.

"We'll bat first. We want to put up a good total on the board. We have got six changes and five debutants. Navdeep comes in among the debutants. We are motivated, and we want to finish on a high. With the youngsters coming in, we are really excited and looking forward," said Dhawan, who'll open the innings with his IPL teammate Prithvi Shaw.


India coach Rahul Dravid has decided to rest Ishan Kishan, Krunal Pandya, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Deepak Chahar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar who were part of the side in the first two ODIs. Sri Lankan skipper Dasun Shanaka also revealed his team is going to make three changes to the side.

"I think the wicket is dry and should stay good. We have three changes: Praveen Jayawickrama, Akila Dananjaya, and Ramesh Mendis come in. I think we are on the right track at the moment and winning this is important to go forward," said Shanaka.

Playing XIs:

Sri Lanka: Avishka Fernando, Minod Bhanuka(w), Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Dhananjaya de Silva, Charith Asalanka, Dasun Shanaka(c), Ramesh Mendis, Chamika Karunaratne, Akila Dananjaya, Dushmantha Chameera, Praveen Jayawickrama.

India: Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan(c), Sanju Samson(w), Manish Pandey, Suryakumar Yadav, Nitish Rana, Hardik Pandya, Krishnappa Gowtham, Rahul Chahar, Navdeep Saini, Chetan Sakariya.