CUTTACK – Sri Lanka cricket captain Thisara Perera won the toss and chose to bowl in the opening Twenty20 international against India in Cuttack on Wednesday.
The visitors, who lost the preceding one-day series 2-1 on Sunday, made four changes after their eight-wicket defeat in the Visakhapatnam ODI.
They brought in paceman Dushmantha Chameera, debutant left-arm quick Vishwa Fernando, all-rounder Dasun Shanaka and batsman Kusal Perera.
“We didn't bat well in the third match (and) in the second match we didn't bowl well. Now we just have to move on and play our own game. We can beat anyone,” Perera said at the toss.
1st T20 at Cuttack: Sri Lanka won the toss and chose to bowl. #INDvSL
— Sri Lanka Cricket (@OfficialSLC) December 20, 2017
India captain Rohit Sharma said he also would have bowled first had he won the toss but believed his team was capable of handling any situation.
“Dew will be a factor, but we have played under those conditions many times,” said Sharma.
“The first games we played against these guys in Tests and ODIs, we didn't have the start that we would have liked but we would like to change things around here.”
The hosts made two changes, with Lokesh Rahul coming in for fellow opener Shikhar Dhawan and fast bowler Jaydev Unadkat replacing Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
The second T20 will be played in Indore on Friday followed by the third and final game on Sunday in Mumbai.
The teams are:
India: Rohit Sharma (captain), Lokesh Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Dinesh Karthik, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wicketkeeper), Hardik Pandya, Jaydev Unadkat, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal.
Sri Lanka: Thisara Perera (captain), Upul Tharanga, Niroshan Dickwella (wicketkeeper), Kusal Perera, Angelo Mathews, Asela Gunaratne, Dasun Shanaka, Dushmantha Chameera, Akila Dananjaya, Vishwa Fernando, Nuwan Pradeep.
Umpires: Nitin Menon (IND) and CK Nandan (IND)
TV Umpire: Anil Chaudhary (IND)
Match Referee: Jeff Crowe (NZL)