India batter Rahul Tripathi has made his presence felt in international cricket in only his second match. Coming in to bat at No. 3 in the first over of the ongoing third T20I against Sri Lanka in Rajkot, Tripathi made optimum use of the powerplay scoring 35 (16) with the help of five fours and two sixes at a strike rate of 218.75.
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The right-handed batter compensated for non-striker Shubman Gill not being able to score brisk runs in the first six overs. Having guided a Dilshan Madushanka leg-side delivery for his first boundary of the match on only the second ball that he faced, there was no stopping Tripathi since then.
Tripathi, who hit another boundary in Tripathi’s second over, hit three more in spinner Maheesh Theekshana’s first over. The 31-year old player nailed a couple of sweeps to perfection before clearing the mid-off on the third occasion.
It was in the following Chamika Karunaratne over that Tripathi hit consecutive sixes down the ground to put on display his calibre in the shortest format.
Why is Sanju Samson not playing vs Sri Lanka today?
It was in the second T20I in Pune on Thursday that Tripathi had made his T20I debut after replacing batter Sanju Samson in the Playing XI. Readers must note that Samson hasn’t been dropped but has been ruled out of the series due to a knee injury he sustained while fielding in the first match in Mumbai on Tuesday.
Not part of a 17-member ODI squad for the subsequent three-match ODI series, Samson would be eyeing a three-match ODI series against New Zealand later this month with respect to making a return to the Indian team.
India, meanwhile, refrained from making any change to their Playing XI for a series-decider at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium tonight. Sri Lanka, on the contrary, have included batter Avishka Fernando in place of batter Bhanuka Rajapaksa.
Fernando, 24, is playing an international match after some 11 months on the back of being the highest run-scorer in Lanka Premier League 2022. Part of champions Jaffna Kings, the right-handed batter had scored 339 runs in 10 innings at an average and strike rate of 37.66 and 124.63 respectively.
