Colombo: The Indian cricket team will aim to pick up the pieces after a disastrous performance in the last match and get their campaign back on track when they take on hosts Sri Lanka in the third ODI to be held here on Saturday.
After a couple of contrasting performances in the two matches at Hambantota where the Men in Blue first won comfortably by 21 runs before being soundly thrashed by nine wickets, the action moves to the familiar territory of Premadasa Stadium here.
Skipper MS Dhoni is not very fond of tinkering with his playing XI but he now seriously needs to think as to how many more chances does Rohit Sharma deserve in order to prove that he is a regular match-winner like Virat Kohli or even fairly consistent on sub-continental tracks like Suresh Raina.
The Mumbai batsman had scores of 1 and 0 in the first two matches where he was out in identical fashion chasing a delivery away from his body.
Rohit has scored a meagre 156 runs in his last 10 ODI innings and has been one of the few players in recent times who has got chances aplenty but failed to deliver on most of the occasions.
Rohit’s replacement could be Manoj Tiwary, who incidentally would like to forget that he has been benched for 14 consecutive matches after scoring his maiden ODI century.
This is a ‘record’ that the 26-year-old Tiwary certainly won’t find amusing.
Ajinkya Rahane also deserves a chance, but with Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli being automatic selections, the talented Mumbaikar will probably sit the game out.
The Premadasa strip is known to help the slower bowlers but Pragyan Ojha picked up a neck injury on Thursday, which will be a cause of worry. (PTI)