Hardik Pandya won the draw and chose to bowl in Pune for the second T20I of the series.
Team India will face Sri Lanka in his T20I for the second time in the series, with Hardik Pandya looking to win the series by choosing to bowl in Pune. The side won the opening game by two runs, with debutant Shiva Mavi performing well to take four wickets in the game. His second stadium in T20I – his MCA stadium in Pune – has a good history of being the first team to hit. However, Pandya chose bowling.
Murali Kartik, who drew the game, pointed out to Pandya that the stats favored whoever batted first. But Hardik had a grand answer. “Oh, I didn’t know that (the team that hit first has a better record here),” said the all-rounder.
Earlier, Rahul Tripathi debuted in his second T20I. First, Shivam Mavi and Shubman Gill made their shortest format debuts for the Indian team.
After his first T20I, Indian starter Ishan Kishan moved up 10 places to his 23rd, and Deepak Hooda returned to the top 100 in his ICC rankings, the latest of his T20I hitters.
Both moved up the order after impressive performances in his first T20 match against Sri Lanka in Mumbai. Huda went undefeated on 41 of 23 pitches, moving up 40 places to 97th, while Kishan took the lead with a quick 37-run knock. Daring Suryakumar Yadav continued to hold onto the top batsmanship despite a rare setback in Mumbai.
Hardik, his T20I captain for India in the series, moved up his nine places among bowlers to take him to 76th, another one of his moves up the rankings. As for Sri Lanka, Wanindu Hasaranga again made a strong contribution against India with his 1/22 figures and the ball helped to stand out even more as his bowler with his T20I top right arm.