India vs Sri Lanka preview: Hurt by the disappointing performance of the batsmen in the first two matches, the Indian cricket team will have to dominate the spinners in the third and final One Day International cricket match to be held here on Wednesday if it wants to avoid losing the series to Sri Lanka after 27 years. This is Gautam Gambhir's first ODI series as head coach and he certainly would not want to start with a defeat.

India last faced defeat in an ODI series against Sri Lanka in 1997. The team led by Arjuna Ranatunga then defeated Sachin Tendulkar's Indian team in all three matches. Since then, 11 ODI series have been played between India and Sri Lanka and the Indian team has emerged victorious in all of them.

ndia had suffered a crushing defeat

India will not be able to win the current series because after the first match ended in a tie, it had to face defeat by 32 runs in the second match. Now its focus is on equalizing the series. India has reached this situation due to the poor performance of the batsmen. The pitch of R Premadasa Stadium is helping the spinners a lot and except captain Rohit Sharma, no other batsman of India has been able to face the Sri Lankan spinners strongly.

Star batsman Virat Kohli has been able to score only 38 runs in two matches so far. He has lost his wicket easily which is a matter of concern for the team. Kohli will try his best to compensate for it in this match. Kohli needs to carry forward the aggressive start he got from Rohit but so far he has failed in this. He will have to improve the innings along with the struggling middle order batsmen. For this, he and other batsmen will have to play dominatingly against the spinners like Rohit.

Sri Lankan spinners remain an unsolved mystery for other Indian batsmen as well. Shivam Dubey, who performed well against spinners, could not even understand the easy leg spin of Jeffrey Vandersay in the last match. Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul have also failed to play Sri Lankan spinners so far. Rohit played a brilliant innings of 64 runs in 44 balls in the last match. Sri Lankan spinners could not stand against him. Other Indian batsmen also need to learn from their captain. India can give a chance to Riyan Parag in place of Dubey in this match, who plays spinners well. His spin bowling will be an additional bonus for the team, because Indian bowlers have also not been able to make an impact like Sri Lankan spinners so far.

The teams are as follows ( IND vs SL Squad)

India: Rohit Sharma (captain), Shubman Gill (vice-captain), Virat Kohli, KL Rahul (wicketkeeper), Rishabh Pant (wicketkeeper), Shreyas Iyer, Shivam Dube, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Washington Sundar, Arshdeep Singh, Riyan Parag, Axar Patel, Khaleel Ahmed, Harshit Rana.

Sri Lanka: Charith Asalanka (captain), Pathum Nissanka, Avishka Fernando, Kusal Mendis, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Kamindu Mendis, Zenith Liyanage, Nishan Madushka, Dunith Wellalage, Chamika Karunaratne, Akila Dananjaya, Mohammed Siraj, Maheesh Theekshana, Asitha Fernando, Ishan Malinga, Jeffrey Vandersay.

The match will start at 2.30 pm Indian time.