Sri Lanka keep offering gifts this festive season, and India keep lapping it up. Their bowlers regularly send down half-volleys and half-trackers, wrapped up in ribbons. Their batting line-up continues to suffer rapid collapses. And their fielders keep missing chances. The only gift Sri Lanka have received in return was a spring-loaded boxing glove from an under-strength Indian side. Can Thisara Perera and his men end the tour with something to cheer?
To do that they need to first figure out the right combination, and
Angelo Mathews getting injured can't have helped. In the first T20I, they went for four batsmen, three seam-bowling allrounders and four bowlers, and suffered their worst loss in the format. In the second match, they brought in an extra batsman in Sadeera Samarawickrama for a frontline seamer in Vishwa Fernando, but still lost 9 for 27 in 25 balls.
With the series in the bag, India might consider handing a T20I debut to 18-year-old Tamil Nadu allrounder
Washington Sundar or Baroda allrounder
Deepak Hooda. This could also be a chance for the other IPL candidates to enhance their reputation ahead of the mega auction in January next year.
India WWWLW (last five completed matches, most recent first)
Sri Lanka LLLLL
The force has been with wristspin in limited-overs cricket in recent times. Even when Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav were repeatedly swatted away to the short boundaries in Indore, they hit back by tossing the ball short and wide - often wider than a set of stumps - to deceive Sri Lanka's batsmen. More of the same can be expected at Wankhede Stadium.
A year ago
Thisara Perera's place in Sri Lanka's A team was in question. Now he is captain of the senior team in limited-overs cricket. On this tour, he hasn't passed 6 in four innings with the bat and has an economy rate of nearly nine after 25.2 overs.
India might consider replacing one of the wristspinners with Sundar or Hooda. Kerala quick Basil Thampi is also in line for his T20I debut, possibly in place of Jaydev Unadkat
India (probable): 1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 KL Rahul, 3 Shreyas Iyer, 4 Dinesh Karthik, 5 Manish Pandey, 6 MS Dhoni (wk), 7 Hardik Pandya, 8 Kuldeep Yadav/Washington Sundar, 9 Jaydev Unadkat/Basil Thampi, 10 Jasprit Bumrah, 11 Yuzvendra Chahal.
With Mathews sidelined for two weeks, Sri Lanka might recall Dasun Shanaka or Fernando.
Sri Lanka (probable): 1 Upul Tharanga, 2 Niroshan Dickwella(wk), 3 Kusal Perera, 4 Sadeera Samarawickrama, 5 Thisara Perera, 6 Asela Gunaratne, 7 Dasun Shanaka/Vishwa Fernando, 8 Akila Dananjaya, 9 Chaturanga de Silva/Sachith Pathirana 10 Dushmantha Chameera 11 Nuwan Pradeep
The Wankhede's flat pitch and the quick outfield is the fantasy of every batsman. The teams will have to be wary of dew in the second innings. The weather is expected to be fine for the duration of the match.
"When you travel overseas, the last series does have an impact. The momentum you create, the winning rhythm of the team does give a lot of confidence."
India captain Rohit Sharma
"India are bowling really well and generally the wristspinners with their variations are hard to pick."
Sri Lanka batsman Kusal Perera