After trashing Australia in their homeland, India is now all set to take on Sri Lanka in the first T 20 International on February 08, 2016 at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Cricket Stadium, Pune.
The Indian squad led by MS Dhoni will be looking forward to winning all the three matches in this series so that they can climb to the top of ICC T 20 rankings before the kick start of the World Cup.
The pitch in Pune is expected to be batting friendly. The weather is also good for a perfect cricketing day.
Indian team have rested Virat Kohli for this series, and in his absence, Rohit Sharma will take charge of the Indian batting lineup.
As always batting department of Indian team is high in papers as it is loaded with big names like M S Dhoni, Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Suresh Raina and Yuvraj Singh.
Veteran pacer Ashish Nehra will lead the Indian bowling lineup. Hardik Pandya or Pawan Negi will find the place in the team as an all-rounder.
The man in the spotlight in this match will be none other than Yuvraj Singh. In Australia, he has faced just twelve balls, but in the last game, he showed glimpses of his class.
How many of you would want to see @msdhoni bowl against @OfficialSLC? Match starts at 7.30 PM IST tomorrow #IndvSL pic.twitter.com/ucbjjkk0kU
— BCCI (@BCCI) February 8, 2016
In all probabilities, the dashing batsman will be trying to prove his big hitting mettle in the game which makes it a must-watch encounter for his fans.
Yuvraj needs only 17 runs to complete 1000 runs in his T 20 career, and if he does that, he will emerge as the fourth Indian batsman to achieve this feat.
The live cricket score and ball-by-ball commentary can be followed on cricinfo.com or cricbuzz.com.
The match will be shown live by Star Sports TV channel in India and Sri Lanka.
Sky Sportsis telecasting the match in the United Kingdom while Willow TV is doing it in the USA.
Star Sports will be live streaming the game live in India starting 7:30 India time, 14:00 GMT at starsports.com.
On the other hand, Sri Lanka will be missing Lasith Malinga as they face an adamant Indian batting line up. Thilakaratne Dilshan is unavailable for this match due to injury, and débutante Niroshan Dickwealla will replace him. Shaminda Eranga will also find his place in the lineup as Binura Fernando picked up a hamstring injury last evening.
