After a mini-break for Christmas and New Year’s post the West Indies series, India kickstart their 2020 with a short, three-match T20I series against old and frankly, quite familiar foes, Sri Lanka.
2020 is the year of the first of consecutive T20 World Cups, which will begin in October in Australia. India have won their last two T20 series, against Bangladesh and West Indies, coming back from a game down in both.
However, they have not yet settled on a starting XI, with numerous injuries and unconvincing performances causing some headache for the team management. The positive for India is that both Shikhar Dhawan and Jasprit Bumrah, key cogs in the side, are back in the squad after missing previous games through injuries.
However, the injury list has been replenished with two new names in place of Bumrah and Dhawan. Pacers, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Deepak Chahar, who has been revelation for India in the shortest format in recent times, even picking a hat-trick and recording the best figures in men’s T20Is, have been sidelined for quite some time.
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Bhuvneshwar had earlier walked off during India’s game against Pakistan in the ODI World Cup last year, and was unfortunate to suffer another injury during the West Indies series.
Chahar meanwhile, had an increased workload, as he turned out for Rajasthan in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in between playing games for India, which led to a back injury.
India will be looking to start the year on a winning note though as they look to win a second World T20 title, having not won since the inaugural edition of the tournament in 2007.
Here are all the relevant details you need to catch it live:
When: The match starts at 7.00pm IST, and toss will be held at 6.30pm IST
Where: Star Sports 1/1 HD, Star Sports 1 Hindi/1 Hindi HD, Star Sports Select 1/1 HD, Star Sports 1 Tamil, Star Sports 1 Telugu, Star Sports 1 Kannada, Star Sports 1 Bangla
Live-stream: Hotstar
Feature image courtesy: AFP / Dibyangshu Sarkar
