India vs Sri Lanka, 2nd T20I: The Men in Blue aim to seal the T20I series. - Cricket Winner

Sri Lanka will need a strong performance to get out of the current scenario. If India performs better than 1st T20I, this will be the Men in Blue’s fourth T20I series triumph over Sri Lanka. On the other hand, the hosts have never won a T20I series against India.

We take you through some of the talking points ahead of the second T20I. 

Bhuvi and Deepak shines with the ball 

Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Deepak Chahar were terrific in the bowling department. Both conceded 16 runs and picked five wickets during the death overs. Bhuvi is also just one short of completing 50 wickets in T20Is. Bhubaneshwar Kumar is back in the playing XI along with Deepak Chahar and the duo shares the new ball. Chahar is a wicket-taker with the new ball and might end up bowling his 4 overs pretty soon.

Must Read: India vs Sri Lanka,1st T20I: Samson fails to deliver, Chahal roars back.

Chahal’s leg-spin wizardry 

Yuzvendra Chahal has been in scintillating form throughout the series. The leg-spinner ended up as the most economical bowler on Sunday, conceding just 19 runs and picking the wicket of Dhananjaya de Silva. With his recent performances, Chahal proved his audacity as the leader of the spin department in the limited-overs side. He was preferred over Chahal during a part of the England series as well and his three-for in the 3rd ODI makes him a strong contender to be in the playing XI. One of Chahal and Varun Chakravarthy might be part of playing XI.

Rise of Suryakumar for India

From establishing his prominence in the T20I side to winning the Man of the Series in his maiden ODI series, Suryakumar Yadav has been in the form of his life. The right-handed charismatic batsman will look to continue making these opportunities count in the final two matches. 

Having beaten Sri Lanka hollow by 38 runs in the opening encounter, the Indians are unlikely to bring in changes to the winning combination unless the team management decides to rest Suryakumar Yadav, who is getting ready to link up with the red-ball team in the United Kingdom.

Still, questions are up for Hardik and Sanju

The other minor worry for the team would be Hardik Pandya’s batting form which has tapered off a bit in recent games. His bowling has been steady but he is nowhere near what he used to be as a skiddy pacer before his back surgery.

The Indian team will want Sanju Samson to translate his phenomenal talent into consistent performances when they try to wrap up the T20 International series against Sri Lanka by winning the second match on Tuesday. But on Tuesday, there will be the focus on Samson, who has always been rated highly and as the “next big thing” but has flattered to deceive in an India jersey in all the chances that he has got.

An average of 13.75 across eight games with sufficient opportunity to bat at the top-order doesn’t bode well for Samson at a time when Indian cricket’s talent cupboard is overflowing with riches.

SL batsmen sans Avishka and Asalanka need to step up 

Avishka Fernando and Charith Asalanka have been single-handedly guiding the Sri Lankan batting. It will be high time that the rest of the batters step up and prove their mettle. Even their skipper Dasun Shanaka agreed that the total was chaseable and the batsmen had faltered. 

Good bowling at the death 

The likes of Chameera and Hasaranga got a couple of wickets each and were also very economical. However, it was the death bowling that restricted India from scoring a bigger total. They also picked a lot of key wickets which in turn reduced the scoring rate for India. The silver lining certainly will be Wanindu Hasaranga’s leg-breaks which have been causing a few problems for the Indians to save Suryakumar, who has been in prime form.

Sri Lanka has one last shot for redemption and will stay focused on leveling the series. As for India, they have a golden opportunity to make it a double of ODI as well as T20I series win.