Sri Lanka tour of India, 2017-18 [Preview]

Sri Lanka will tour India for a full-fledged tour in November. The Islanders will play three Tests, three ODIs, and three T20s. Dinesh Chandimal and co. will play their first Test against India at Eden Gardens, Kolkata starting from 16^th November. The second game will be played at Nagpur followed by third and final game at Delhi.

The venues for three-match one-day series have been finalized as well as the first game of the series will be played at Dharamsala. The second game of the series will be played at Mohali on 13^th December and the final one at Visakhapatnam on 17^th December. The conclusion of the one-day series will see T20 series being contested between two teams.

The T20 series-opening game will be played at Cuttack on 20^th December. The other games will be played at Indore and Mumbai to conclude the tour. The last series played between the two sides was four months back in Sri Lanka where India completely a whitewash over the Islanders across three formats. Virat Kohli’s men produced a dominant display with the bat and ball to see India complete whitewash across all formats in Sri Lanka.

However, Sri Lanka did remarkably well to turn their fortunes around in the longer format as they were able to defeat Pakistan in the two-match test series played in UAE. Dinesh Chandimal led the way from the front with the ball with support from Dimuth Karunaratne, Niroshan Dickwella, and Dilruwan Perera. The Lankan Tigers is going through a torrid run in the shorter formats as Pakistan made a clean sweep against the visitors in the ODI and T20 series respectively.

On the other hand, India has been in scintillating form this season as they completed a series win against Australia and New Zealand played at home. Virat Kohli and co. easily brushed aside Australia in the five-match one-day series before settling for a draw in the three-match T20 series.

New Zealand proved to be much tougher opponent than Australia as India had to work hard to win the one-day series. Rohit Sharma has been in splendid form at this time as opener helped India win the one-day series against Kiwis. Virat Kohli’s form has also been good as the premier batsman for India scored two tons against New Zealand in the three-match one-day series.

The odds will favor India as they will play at home and have been virtually unbeatable for the last 3 years in their own backyard. They do hold a psychological edge over the Islanders after hammering them in Sri Lanka in all formats of the game. Sri Lanka will have to play their best game in order to run India close in the series.

The history between the sides also suggests that India has been dominant in Test cricket be it playing in India or Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka has not been able to win a single game in the country and not been able to win a series as well. They will go into the series as underdogs but fancy their chances as all the pressure will be on India to continue their rich vein of form in the form.