Sri Lanka are all set to host the mighty Australians in the first T20I of the three-match series on Tuesday, June 7, at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo. The two teams last met in February 2022 for a five-match T20I series hosted by Australia. The visitors faced a tough time as they were handed a crushing defeat of 4-1.
While Australia remain to be a strong side in the format, Sri Lanka have in-form players like Wanindu Hasaranga, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, and Matheesha Pathirana, who did well in the recently-concluded IPL 2022. While Hasaranga put up a tough fight in the Purple Cap race, Rajapaksa was a great edition to the Punjab Kings’ batting line-up. Pathirana, also known as Jr. Malinga, will be trained by the legendary pacer himself as the team gears up to take on Australia.
The R Premadasa Stadium is not a high-scoring surface and thus the bowlers will be benefitted more than the batters. Spinners are likely to have an upper hand as compared to the pacers. The captain winning the toss would look to chase in the game, thereby restricting the opposition to a low total in the first innings. The average first innings score in 42 games has been 153 runs.
Probable Playing XIs for Sri Lanka vs Australia
Sri Lanka
Pathum Nissanka, Danushka Gunathilaka, Kusal Mendis, Charith Asalanka, Bhanuka Rajapaksa (wk), Dasun Shanaka (c), Wanindu Hasaranga, Chamika Karunaratne, Dushmantha Chameera, Lakshan Sandakan, Kasun Rajitha
Australia
Aaron Finch (c), David Warner, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Steve Smith, Marcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade, Ashton Agar, Mitchell Starc, Kane Richardson, Josh Hazlewood
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