India vs Sri Lanka 3rd ODI: Five debutants for Team India, Shikhar Dhawan wins toss and bats

Team India skipper Shikhar Dhawan finally won the toss and elected to bat first in the third ODI against Sri Lanka at the R. Premadasa stadium in Colombo on Friday (July 23). With the ODI series already in India’s bag with a 2-0 lead, India have opted to hand five debut caps to Nitish Rana, Rahul Chahar, Chetan Sakariya, K Gowtham and Sanju Samson.

“We have got six changes and five debutants,” Dhawan said at the toss. Paceman Navdeep Saini comes in apart from the five debutants.

Hello & Good Afternoon from Colombo #TeamIndia have elected to bat against Sri Lanka in the third & final ODI of the series. #SLvIND

Follow the match https://t.co/7LRDbx0DLM

Here is India's Playing XI pic.twitter.com/pioejNJG5k — BCCI (@BCCI) July 23, 2021

Hosts Sri Lanka, who lost a closely fought second ODI by three wickets, also rung in three changes in the match with Praveen Jayawickrama, Ramesh Mendis and Akila Dananjaya coming in.

Meanwhile, all-rounder Hardik Pandya, who has recovered from injury and started to bowl in the ODI, said that India can easily pick two sides with the kind of talent they have got.

“Our roles are very clear, even in the main team. The kind of talent which the Indian team posses right now, I think we can pick two more teams and win any competition in the world. I understand that in life you have to keep growing,” Pandya said ahead of the third ODI.

“As a cricketer and a person you need to keep growing. My process is just growing as a human being. You tend to make mistakes, you fail, but I like to celebrate my failures. I like to celebrate my bad days, it is a part of the sport and it teaches you a lot of things. I like to remember it,” the Mumbai Indians all-rounder added.

Hardik added that there was no competition between him and Mumbai Indians teammate Suryakumar Yadav when it came to tattoos.

“With Surya and me, it is not even a competition with tattoos, we both love it. I am 100%, it's just about game time. The more I play, the more I'll get better,” he added.