Sri Lanka vs India, 1st T20I: Match Preview, Head to Head, Playing XI and Broadcast Details

Sri Lankan Women are all set to host the India Women in a three-match T20I series, with the first game being scheduled for June 23 at the Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium in Dambulla. The Sri Lankan squad will be led by Chamari Athapaththu and the Indian team will be led by their newly appointed ODI skipper Harmanpreet Kaur as Mithali Raj announced her international retirement.

Sri Lanka recently played a white-ball series against Pakistan away from home. While they suffered a whitewash in the three-match T20I series, they lost the ODI series by 2-1. But the advantage that they have, of playing an international game in recent times, is not borne by the Indian team. India were last seen during the Women’s World Cup, where they faced South Africa in their final game of the league stage on March 27.

Both the teams will be eyeing a victory in the upcoming series as both of them have been awaiting a much-needed win. The Indian players recently played the Women’s T20 Challenge and got accustomed to the T20 situation, but because the number of games was limited, there weren’t many opportunities of playing.

As for the Sri Lankan side, skipper Athapaththu, Nilakshi de Silva, Oshadi Ranasinghe, and Hasini Perera have been in good form as they were the finest performers from the team during the Pakistan series. Speaking of India, Jemimah Rodrigues, Smriti Mandhana, skipper Kaur, and Pooja Vastrakar will be the players to watch out for.

Rodrigues had a terrific outing in the shorter format franchise games while playing at The Hundred and in the Women’s Big Bash League in the last one year. Mandhana was equally impressive. Kaur was the finest performer from the lot during the WBBL and was also in great touch during the WT20 tournament in India. Vastrakar has been on a wicket-taking spree lately, and she will try to implement similar heroics from the WT20 Challenge.

Pitch and conditions

The Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium in Sri Lanka has hosted four T20Is, all back in 2014, and all four were abandoned. The venue has been for the ODIs majorly. It is a bowler-friendly surface and will support the spinners throughout the three games. As for the batters, they will try to take maximum advantage of the new ball in order to put up a competitive total. 150-160 runs can be a defendable score.

Playing Combinations for SL vs IND

Sri Lanka

The hosts lost their previous series against Pakistan badly and thus will aim to put up a better show at their home when they take on India. The Chamari Athapaththu-led team tried to put competitive fights in their recent games and will look to improve themselves in order to plot an act of revenge against India, the visitors, so as to balance out.

Predicted Playing XI: Anushka Sanjeewani (wk), Hasini Perera, Chamari Athapaththu (c), Kavisha Dilhari, Inoka Ranaweera, Oshadi Ranasinghe, Sathya Sandeepani, Nilakshi de Silva, Vishmi Gunaratne, Harshitha Madavi, Sugandika Kumari

India

The Indian side will be all geared up to finally get into international cricket after a break of almost three months. The batters in the team are in terrific form as they have received a whole lot of franchise cricket experience. It’s been very long since India last won a bilateral series, and thus the Harmanpreet Kaur-led side would look to break that jinx.

Predicted Playing XI: Shafali Verma, Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues, Yastika Bhatia, Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh (wk), Pooja Vastrakar, Simran Bahadur, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Radha Yadav

SL vs IND Head to Head

Played- 18 | Sri Lanka- 3 | India- 14 | No Result – 1 |

SL vs IND Broadcast Details

Match Timings- 2:30 PM IST

Live Streaming – SLC’s Official YouTube Channel