Sri Lanka vs India, 3rd T20I - Live Cricket Score, Commentary

Toss- India opt to bat

Shikhar Dhawan wants runs on the board again. So now we will really get to see if the visitors have made a change to their approach. Sandeep Warrier makes his debut for India. What a story!! Included as a net bowler and then drafted into the squad because of the covid situation in the Indian camp and now gets a game as well. Sri Lanka have brought in Pathum Nissanka to strengthen their batting in place of Isuru Udana.

Teams:

India (Playing XI): Shikhar Dhawan(c), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Devdutt Padikkal, Sanju Samson(w), Nitish Rana, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Rahul Chahar, Sandeep Warrier, Chetan Sakariya, Varun Chakravarthy

Sri Lanka (Playing XI): Avishka Fernando, Minod Bhanuka(w), Sadeera Samarawickrama, Pathum Nissanka, Dasun Shanaka(c), Dhananjaya de Silva, Wanindu Hasaranga, Ramesh Mendis, Chamika Karunaratne, Akila Dananjaya, Dushmantha Chameera

The surface

Murali Kartik says the match will be played on a fresh pitch. But the dry nature of the surface will once again put the onus on the spinners to step up from both sides. 150 could well be a match-winning score tonight.

Build up

Sri Lanka probably won't get a better opportunity than this to end their losing streak in T20I cricket. They have lost their last five bilateral series in this format but find themselves in a very good position to finish the night with a much-needed trophy. India's 'B' team has pretty much been reduced to a 'C' team due to Covid and their thin batting order was under the pump just 24 hours ago at this venue. Sri Lanka's spinners did a great job and were well backed up by Dhananjaya de Silva, Minod Bhanuka and Chamika Karunaratne to an extent at the end as they pulled one back in the series. A repeat performance would boost their confidence big time as they look to arrest a slide that began a few years ago.

India did put up a brave fight after losing some big players in the squad but 15 more runs on Wednesday could have made a huge difference. Having Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Kuldeep Yadav at 6 and 7 as your finishers meant a conservative approach was the need of the hour and it will be interesting to see what tactics Rahul Dravid comes up with for his boys. Will Shikhar Dhawan or Ruturaj Gaikwad drop anchor and look to bat at least 15 overs? Will there be a change in the batting order? India badly need all five available batsmen to step up tonight in order to seal the series. Welcome to the live blog for this final game of the series. Hopefully, we have a cracking finish to the tour.