The ICC World Twenty20 is round the corner and the home team under M.S. Dhoni will prepare for the campaign with a three-match series against Sri Lanka that is here without Angelo Mathews, Lasith Malinga and a few other stalwarts.
There is, of course, the Asia Cup to be played next month in Bangladesh, but with the teams for all three tournaments being selected in advance, the opening match against the Dinesh Chandimal-led Sri Lankan side here on Tuesday will give an idea of the combination Dhoni will choose in the absence of top-draw batsman Virat Kohli.
Negi surprise These are the days of a left-arm spinner named Pawan Negi though, and it would be interesting to see if the captain would spring a ‘Negi’ surprise at the first available opportunity.
The 23-year-old, who was bought by Delhi Daredevils for Rs. 8.5 crore at the IPL-9 auction on Saturday, has played two matches at the Gahunje village venue here and his spells for Daredevils almost four years ago were 4-0-21-0 against Pune Warriors and 4-0-18-1 against Kolkata Knight Riders.
Negi will compete with another talented and experienced left-arm spinner-batsman Ravindra Jadeja for a place in the team.
Clearly, it’s been a season for newcomers and India’s selection policy for the Twenty20 Internationals, starting with the three-match series against Australia, has placed the IPL in proper perspective.
Eight years ago, Shane Watson won the Most Valuable Player award and found his way back into the mainstream of Australian cricket. Even in the Indian context, there were a handful who attracted attention, notably Jadeja and Manish Pandey, who scored a blazing century at Centurion Park in the second season of the IPL, and soon the cricketing fraternity marked him down as an India potential.
But the arrival of Gujarat medium-pacer Jasprit Bumrah, Baroda all-rounder Hardik Pandya and Negi has given a further boost to the high-profile Twenty20 league that almost every budding Indian cricketer looks upon as a launching board into international cricket. Spotted by Mumbai Indians coach John Wright three years ago, Bumrah came through the wringer of India’s domestic competitions and the initial impact he made in Australia only indicates the ambitions of the young medium-pacer.
Pandya did not get to bat in the three games in Australia and perhaps he has not disappointed the selectors and the team management with the little he did with the ball and in the outfield on some of the biggest grounds in the world.
Familiar names in the Sri Lankan team are Chandimal, Dilhara Fernando, Chamara Kapugedera, Thisara Perera and Sachithra Senanayake.
Sri Lanka has played 73 Twenty20 matches, won 44 and lost 28, but since January 2015, it has won just one match in six. So the odds appear to be stacked against it in the series.
The teams (from):
India: M.S. Dhoni (Capt.), Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Suresh Raina, Ajinkya Rahane, R. Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Pawan Negi, Jasprit Bumrah, Manish Pandey, Harbhajan Singh, Ashish Nehra, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yuvraj Singh, Hardik Pandya.
Sri Lanka: Dinesh Chandimal (Capt.), Dushmantha Chameera, Niroshan Dickwella, Dilhara Fernando, Asela Gunaratne, Dabushka Gunathilaka, Chamara Kapugedera, Thisara Perera, Seekkuge Prasanna, Kasun Rajitha, Dasun Shanka, Sachithra Senanayake, Milinda Siriwardana, Jeffrey Vandersay.
Match starts at 7.30 p.m.
