Suryakumar Yadav not playing: India have had to make six changes to their Playing XI from their last T20I on Sunday.
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During the first T20I of the ongoing Sri Lanka’s tour of India in Lucknow, Sri Lanka captain Dasun Shanaka has won the toss and chose to field.
“We’ll bowl. It’s a very good pitch, we have been bowling well in the last few games, so backing our strengths. Have had a couple of days to recover,” Shanaka told Star Sports at the toss.
Shanaka further confirmed the absence of a couple of doubtful starters who are unavailable due to respective injuries. “We have a couple of injuries – [Dinesh] Chandimal and [Jeffrey] Vandersay are in, they replace [Maheesh] Theekshana and Kusal Mendis,” Shanaka said.
Why is Suryakumar Yadav not playing vs Sri Lanka?
Much like Shanaka, India captain Rohit Sharma was also keen to field first at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium tonight.
“We were looking to chase as well, not sure how the pitches in India plays. But we now know we need to bat well, the last time we played here, about 4 years back, the pitch played well. Nothing changes as far as the goals of the team are concerned, need to do the right things as a team, need to keep ticking all the right boxes,” Sharma told Star Sports at the toss.
With India resting key players namely Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant and Suryakumar Yadav and Deepak Chahar getting ruled out of the series due to respective injuries, the hosts have had to make as many as six changes from the Playing XI which took the field against West Indies in Kolkata on Sunday. Batter Ruturaj Gaikwad complaining of wrist pain further increased India’s selection woes.
Welcome back @imjadeja, it’s been a while. Big assignment for @IamSanjuSamson too. #Rohit had mentioned Samson having the game to fare well on Aussie pitches where T20 World Cup will be played. But he needs to score consistently to find a place in the WC squad
— Cricketwallah (@cricketwallah) February 24, 2022
“Ruturaj [Gaikwad] was supposed to play, but he has a wrist injury and will not play today,” Sharma said. Meanwhile, wicket-keeper batter Sanju Samson, all-rounders Deepak Hooda (debut) and Ravindra Jadeja, fast bowlers Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah and spinner Yuzvendra Chahal have been included into the Playing XI.
