Former India player Akash Chopra said that Sri Lanka will win the ODI series easily, but not to be proud.
The Sri Lankan team has come to India to play a series of three T20Is and three ODIs. The Indian team won the ongoing T20 series by 2-1.
The first ODI was played in Guwahati. India scored 373 runs in this. Virat Kohli scored a century and Rohit and Gill scored fifties. Captain Shanaka scored a century for the Sri Lankan team who batted next. Opener Nishanka also scored a half-century. Other players didn’t care. Therefore, the Sri Lankan team could only score 306 runs for the loss of 8 wickets. In the end, India won by 67 runs and took a 1-0 lead in the series.
In this case, even if the Indian team won this ODI series, don’t take it for pride. Former Indian player Akash Chopra has said that the Sri Lankan team is weaker than the Bangladeshi team.
He said:
Sri Lanka will have to fight a little harder to beat India in ODIs than in T20Is. Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Shreyas Iyer are in India’s ODI squad. They are also in good form. It showed well in the first ODI. It is not so easy to face them. The Sri Lankan team should come up with new plans in the next match. Looking at the playing eleven of the Sri Lankan team, it seems backward. Looks like bowling week.
Bangladesh beat India. Taking that as an example, the Sri Lankan team should fight confidently. At the same time, the Indian team should not make the mistake made with the Bangladesh team this time and face the ODI series without taking the opponent lightly.
Perhaps, despite beating Sri Lanka to clinch the ODI series, the bowling, batting and partnership in the team is not to be taken for granted. Think about what can be done to improve. The 50-over World Cup should be taken into consideration from this series.” said.
