Today India’s eyes will be on defeating Sri Lanka and securing a place in the semi-finals.

After the 2011 World Cup final, both the teams will once again face each other at Wankhede today.

Last time India. Sri Lanka Wankhede was the 2011 World Cup final when both teams played an ODI match at this venue. Now, twelve years later, many things are different. Despite the absence of Shubman Gill in the first two matches and Hardik Pandya in the last two matches, B India has won all its six matches. If India beats Sri Lanka on Thursday, it will become the first team to reach the semi-finals.

If we talk about Sri Lanka, it is struggling a lot to make it to the World Cup. They have got only four points from six matches so far and are on the verge of elimination if they lose today’s match.

India will once again play this match without Hardik, who is not likely to return yet. This means that they can once again go with only five frontline bowlers.

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Sri Lanka also cannot field many players as several players are injured, including their nominated captain Dasun Shanaka. Kusal Mendis took command in the absence of captain Dasun Shanaka but it seems to be affecting his batting. In the first two matches, when Shanaka was the captain, Mendis had scored 198 runs at a strike rate of 166.38. Since then, he has managed just 70 runs in four innings at a strike rate of 76.08.

Shreyas Iyer and Angelo Mathews

Shreyas Iyer is at number four in this World Cup and so far he has scored 134 runs in six innings at an average of 33.50. These are not bad figures. But now he will have to score big in the next two matches, otherwise India can drop him when Hardik comes back.

Angelo Mathews was not to face India in this World Cup. But now that he is here, Sri Lanka must bring out the best of his abilities. Mathews’ record against India is an average of 53.57 and a strike rate of 84.93, with all three of his ODI centuries coming against them. If you consider the matches played in India, the average almost doubles to 105.16 and the strike rate to 96.77.

India (probable): 1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 Shubman Gill, 3 Virat Kohli, 4 Shreyas Iyer, 5 KL Rahul (wk), 6 Suryakumar Yadav, 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 Kuldeep Yadav, 9 Mohammed Shami, 10 Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj

Sri Lanka may consider bringing in Dinuth Velalej in place of Dhananjay de Silva.

Sri Lanka (probable): 1 Pathum Nissanka, 2 Dimuth Karunaratne, 3 Kusal Mendis (capt, wk), 4 Sadeera Samarawickrama, 5 Charith Asalanka, 6 Angelo Mathews, 7 Dinuth Wellalage/Dhananjaya de Silva, 8 Kasun Rajitha, 9 Maheesh Theekshana, 10 Dilshan Madushanka, 11 Dushmantha Chameera

Pitch Report

It always rains runs in Wankhede Stadium. So far, two matches have been played on this ground in this World Cup, where South Africa, batting first, has scored 399 and 382 runs. Today once again a similar high scoring game is expected. The temperature will be around 35°C, there is no forecast of rain.