IND vs SL: Shreyas Iyer front-runner for No.3 spot; focus on R Ashwin’s form

Shreyas Iyer and R Ashwin

These days the Sri Lankan cricket team are not the same force like few years ago. Thus, the two-match Test series, beginning at the PCA Stadium today, is not as high profile as it would have been in the past, or had the opponents been Australia, England or South Africa. It will be remembered mostly for being Rohit Sharma's first Test as captain and Virat Kohli's 100th Test, and it is up to the master batsmen to make it memorable. For Rohit to start with a win, while for Kohli to become the first Indian to score a century in the landmark Test. There have been nine instances of batsmen scoring a century in their 100th game. Joe Root was the last to do so and the first to hammer a double century in his milestone game against India at Chennai a year ago.

Kohli, who used to score centuries regularly, has gone without one in the last two years. His last international hundred came against Bangladesh in the day-night Test in Kolkata in November 2019. Since then, fans have been waiting for him to end the drought and nothing can be more joyous than getting one on this special occasion.

Kohli will undoubtedly be the focus of attention during the five days; his will be the main plot while skipper Rohit will be under scrutiny in his first game as Test captain. How the match pans out will only be a sub-plot, with the strong Indian side expected to get the better of the struggling Sri Lankans, after having whitewashed them in the recent T20 series.

With two batting stalwarts - Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara - not in the team, it will be interesting to see who replaces the duo. Shreyas Iyer is in tremendous form, thus should be the front-runner to take up the No.3 spot, especially after scoring a century against New Zealand on his Test debut a few months ago. Hanuma Vihari could be at No.5, leaving either Mayank Agarwal or local boy Shubman Gill to open the innings with Rohit.

The match will also mark the return of Ravichandran Ashwin, who got injured after the South Africa tour. The offie is just five wickets shy of overtaking Kapil Dev's tally of 434 wickets, which will put him second behind Anil Kumble's 619. The series is important for the lanky off-spinner as he is under the scanner.

The spin duo of Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja have almost always delivered on home pitches and the trend should continue and that should help the former to prolong his Test career, especially as he is virtually ruled out of white-ball cricket.

India's likely XI
Rohit (captain), Gill (or M Agarwal), S Iyer, V Kohli, H Vihari, R Pant (wk), R Jadeja, R Ashwin, J Bumrah, M Shami, M Siraj