Almost 15 hours after recording a thumping 228-run win over Pakistan, India are back at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo, where they have elected to bat after winning the toss in their second game of the Asia Cup Super Four stage against an unchanged Sri Lanka on Tuesday.
“It’s the challenge you come across as a sportsman. You’ve got to adjust, adapt as quickly as you can,” Rohit said on playing for the third straight day.
The Men-in-Blue have made a single change in their Playing XI and have included the third spinner in Axar Patel in place of seamer Shardul Thakur.
Meanwhile, India’s middle order batter Shreyas Iyer was earlier ruled out of the game against Sri Lanka as he is yet to recover from a back spasm that forced him to miss the previous match against Pakistan.
According to the latest update from the BCCI’s medical team, the Mumbai batter has been advised rest and accordingly he will not travel to the stadium for the game against Sri Lanka.
“Shreyas Iyer is feeling better but is yet to fully recover from back spasm. He has been advised rest by the BCCI medical team and has not travelled with the team to the stadium today for India’s Super 4 match against Sri Lanka,” the BCCI statement read.
Iyer was a last-minute exclusion from the Playing XI against Pakistan, a match which stretched for two days, and eventually giving India a morale-boosting 228-run victory on Monday night. In Iyer’s absence, KL Rahul announced his return to competitive cricket after a four-month injury lay-off by slamming a belligerent century, his sixth in 50 over cricket. The Bengaluru cricketer also kept wickets for the side.
“And then KL, to return from injury and then find out 5 minutes before the toss that he’s playing, and to perform the way he did, it shows the mindset of the player,” skipper Rohit Sharma said of Rahul’s century.
Teams:
India: Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul (WK), Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj
Sri Lanka: Dimuth Karunaratne, Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Mendis (WK), Sadeera Samarawickrama, Charith Asalanka, Dhananjaya de Silva, Dasun Shanaka (C), Dunith Wellalage, Maheesh Theekshana, Kasun Rajitha, Matheesha Pathirana