IND vs SL 3rd ODI Live: Team India coach Rahul Dravid handed debuts to five cricketers in their third and final ODI against Sri Lanka in Colombo. Sanju Samson, Nitish Rana, Krishnappa Gowtham, Rahul Chahar and Chetan Sakariya will all be making their debuts after impressive performances in the IPL and domestic cricket over the last season. It marks only the third time that India have handed five debuts in a limited-overs game and the first time since 1980 in ODIs.
IND vs SL 3rd ODI Live: Shikhar Dhawan and Rahul Dravid presented caps to five players in the warm-up ahead of the final ODI game in the series against Sri Lanka. Team India completely re-jigged their bowling lineup with Rahul Chahar, Chetan Sakariya and Krishnappa Gowtham coming in, while Nitish Rana and Sanju Samson also got a spot in the side. The last time India had fielded five debutants in ODIs was way back in MCG during the 1980/81 season. In that instance, Dilip Doshi, Kirti Azad, Roger Binny, Sandeep Patil & Tirumalai Srinivasan had all made their debuts for the national team.
Say Hello 👋🏻 to our 5 ODI debutants #TeamIndia #SLvIND
Congratulations boys 👏🏻👏🏻 pic.twitter.com/ouKYrtrW8G
— BCCI (@BCCI) July 23, 2021
India have also handed five debuts in a T20 game, during their tour of Zimbabwe in 2015. During the game in Harare, Ajinkya Rahane made his captaincy debut in T20Is, and handed caps to Stuart Binny, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Axar Patel and Sandeep Sharma. That series also the debut of Sanju Samson in the second T20I, who will be making his ODI debut five years later on Friday.
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IND vs SL 3rd ODI Live: With the series already in the bag, the game presents a massive opportunity for the debutants to make their mark and repay Rahul Dravid’s faith in them. The likes of Rahul Chahar and Krishnappa Gowtham will hope to make a case for selection in the upcoming T20I series, with an eye on making the T20 World Cup squad. Meanwhile, Sanju Samson and Nitish Rana will also hope to impress, and remain in thoughts should an opportunity arise for the same.
