Toss: India chose to bat v Sri Lanka
02:51
Arnold: Sri Lanka spinners know how to work batsmen out
Virat Kohli, India’s captain, chose to bat in the first Test against Sri Lanka in Galle. He said the pitch looked hard, with a good covering of grass on it, and expected it to be good to bat on initially.
India handed Hardik Pandya a Test debut, picking him ahead of Rohit Sharma at No. 6, to give them an extra bowling option alongside two frontline quicks in Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav and two spinners in R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. There was no place in their XI, therefore, for the left-arm wristspin of Kuldeep Yadav, who picked up a first-innings four-wicket haul on debut in India’s last Test match, against Australia in Dharamsala. With both M Vijay (wrist injury) and KL Rahul (viral fever) out of the reckoning, Shikhar Dhawan and Abhinav Mukund made up their opening pair.
There was a debutant in Sri Lanka’s line-up too, Danushka Gunathilaka pipping Dhananjaya de Silva to take the place of their injured full-time captain Dinesh Chandimal at No. 4. Nuwan Pradeep, meanwhile, came back to lead the pace attack after missing the Test match against Zimbabwe earlier in the month with a hamstring injury. He replaced Suranga Lakmal. Dilruwan Perera and stand-in captain Rangana Herath made up the spin attack.
Rain arrived immediately after the toss, but only briefly. Play is expected to start on time.
Sri Lanka: 1 Dimuth Karunaratne, 2 Upul Tharanga, 3 Kusal Mendis, 4 Danushka Gunathilaka, 5 Angelo Mathews, 6 Asela Gunaratne, 7 Niroshan Dickwella (wk), 8 Dilruwan Perera, 9 Rangana Herath (capt), 10 Nuwan Pradeep, 11 Lahiru Kumara.
India: 1 Shikhar Dhawan, 2 Abhinav Mukund, 3 Cheteshwar Pujara, 4 Virat Kohli (capt), 5 Ajinkya Rahane, 6 Hardik Pandya, 7 R Ashwin, 8 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 9 Ravindra Jadeja, 10 Mohammed Shami, 11 Umesh Yadav.
Karthik Krishnaswamy is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
Source: ESPN Crickinfo