Indore : Having won the first T20I in Cuttack already, India will aim to now cement the three-match series when it take Sri Lanka in the second T20I, here at the Holkar Stadium on Friday.
The series win here would mean India will remain unbeaten in bilateral series across formats in the year.
India have their experienced players, including Virat kohli and Shikhar Dhawan, rested in the series and are batting on young players like KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Basil Thampi, Deepak Hooda and others.
But the absence of the veteran players has not given any respite to the Sri Lankans as the Indian side is well supported by the young bowling side, who dismantled the visitors in the series opener to help India register their biggest T20 win of 93 runs.
The Indian wrist-spin duo of Yazuvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav left the Lankan middle order clueless in the opener.
The two will thus look to replicate their Cuttack performance, where they shared six wickets between them in eight overs, to give India another series win.
Sri Lanka, on the other hand, will look to drag the series until Sunday for a decider in Mumbai.
The surface at the Holkar Stadium is usually a batsman’s dream, but pitch curators have advised to bowl first to the team that wins the toss.
Meanwhile, the distance of the boundary has also been shortened to 69 yards.
The probable squads for the two teams are as follows:
India: Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Dinesh Karthik, Manish Pandey, MS Dhoni (wk), Hardik Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Basil Thampi, Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal.
Sri Lanka: Niroshan Dickwella (wk), Upul Tharanga, Kusal Perera, Angelo Mathews, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Asela Gunaratne, Dasun Shanaka, Thisara Perera (c), Akila Dananjaya, Dushmantha Chameera, Nuwan Pradeep.(ANI)