Toss: India chose to bat v Sri Lanka
© Associated Press
India’s captain Virat Kohli chose to bat on a Feroz Shah Kotla pitch that he felt would offer a bit of help for the fast bowlers in the first session. He hoped it would present his batsmen a challenge early on but said he would have “liked more grass on the wicket, for sure”, in what is India’s final Test before their tour of South Africa.
Dinesh Chandimal, the Sri Lanka captain, said he would have preferred to bat first too.
Smarting from their heaviest-ever defeat in the second Test in Nagpur, Sri Lanka made three changes to their side. They brought in Dhananjaya de Silva and handed a debut to the middle-order batsman Roshen Silva, a 29-year-old with 103 first-class matches behind him, and dropped dropped Lahiru Thirimanne and Dasun Shanaka. Thirimanne and Shanaka have endured poor series with the bat, and got out to loose shots in the second innings in Nagpur.
The other change was forced on them, with Lakshan Sandakan replacing the injured Rangana Herath.
India made two changes, leaving out KL Rahul and bringing back Shikhar Dhawan to play their third opening combination of the series, and bringing back Mohammed Shami, who missed out in Nagpur with a hip niggle, for Umesh Yadav.
India: 1 M Vijay, 2 Shikhar Dhawan, 3 Cheteshwar Pujara, 4 Virat Kohli (capt), 5 Ajinkya Rahane, 6 Rohit Sharma, 7 R Ashwin, 8 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 9 Ravindra Jadeja, 10 Mohammed Shami, 11 Ishant Sharma.
Sri Lanka: 1 Dimuth Karunaratne, 2 Sadeera Samarawickrama, 3 Dhananjaya de Silva, 4 Angelo Mathews, 5 Dinesh Chandimal (capt), 6 Roshen Silva, 7 Niroshan Dickwella (wk), 8 Dilruwan Perera, 9 Lakshan Sandakan, 10 Suranga Lakmal, 11 Lahiru Gamage.
Karthik Krishnaswamy is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo