Sri Lanka Adds Theekshana to Squad for Batting; Pant Returns, Parag Makes Debut for India

Sri Lanka has won the toss and elected to bat first against India.

Sri Lanka won the toss and decided to bat first in the third and final ODI against India in Colombo. Sri Lanka lead the series 1-0, and a win will secure a first bilateral ODI series win against India since 1997.

Charith Asalanka had no doubt in his decision to bat, a strategy which has worked well so far over the course of the series. Sri Lanka made one change with Maheesh Theekshana coming in for Akila Dhananjaya.

For the visitors there were two changes, including an ODI debut for Riyan Parag, who gave the Sri Lankan batters a lot of trouble during the T20Is. He comes in for Arshdeep Singh, which meant India added an extra spinner while simultaneously strengthening their batting. The other change was Rishabh Pant who came in for his first ODI since his car crash late in 2022. He replaced KL Rahul and took the gloves.

This meant India went in with two seam-bowling options and four spinners. Sri Lanka, meanwhile, will stuck with just a solitary seamer - plus Janith Liyanage who bowls seam, and no less than five spinners.

The pitch was a new one and was dry, which meant spin would play a prominent role as the game wore on.

Both sets of batters have struggled to kick on after starts, and Asalanka has said he's looking forward to "someone scoring a hundred on this kind of pitch".

The weather looked largely clear, for the start of the game and in the evening, though there is a chance of rain later in the afternoon.

Sri Lanka: 1 Pathum Nissanka, 2 Avishka Fernando, 3 Kusal Mendis (wk), 4 Sadeera Samarawickrama, 5 Charith Asalanka (capt), 6 Janith Liyanage, 7 Dunith Wellalage, 8 Kamindu Mendis, 9 Maheesh Theekshana, 10 Jeffrey Vandersay, 11 Asitha Fernando

India: 1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 Shubman Gill, 3 Virat Kohli, 4 Shreyas Iyer, 5 Rishabh Pant (wk), 6 Riyan Parag, 7 Shivam Dube, 8 Axar Patel, 9 Washington Sundar, 10 Kuldeep Yadav, 11 Mohammed Siraj