Sri Lanka vs India : 2nd Test Day 1: Virat Kohli wins toss, elects to bat first

Toss:

India captain Virat Kohli has won the toss, and has decided to bat first.

Preview: Both India and Sri Lanka are set to get their reinforcements ahead of the second Test at the Sinhalese Sports Club, in Colombo, on Thursday.

While hosts Sri Lanka welcome back their pneumonia-struck skipper Dinesh Chandimal, India are looking ahead to have regular opener KL Rahul back in their XI.

Chandimal's return will be a huge boost for the Lankans, who suffered a 304-run thrashing at the hands of the visitors in the first Test, at the Galle International Stadium, last week.

India captain Virat Kohli, on the other hand, is faced with a big dilemma. Abhinav Mukund was brought in as a replacement for the injured Murali Vijay, with Rahul being slated to be his partner at the top of the batting order during the three-match



Test series in Sri Lanka; Shikhar Dhawan was brought in as a third choice opener.

However, both Dhawan and Mukund have made strong cases for their selection in the second Test, with a 190 in the first innings and 81 in the second, respectively.

It would be interesting to see whether Sri Lanka Test captain Chandimal's return can inspire his legions to rise out of their slump.

Playing XI:

Sri Lanka: Dimuth Karunaratne, Upul Tharanga, Kusal Mendis, Dinesh Chandimal (c), Angelo Mathews, Dhananjaya de Silva, Niroshan Dickwella (wk), Rangana Herath, Dilruwan Perera, Malinda Pushpakumara, Nuwan Pradeep.

India: Shikhar Dhawan, Lokesh Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli (c), Ajinkya Rahane, Ravichandran Ashwin, Wriddhiman Saha(w), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav.