Sri Lanka won the toss and decided to bowl first in the first T20 - see playing 11

IND vs SL: The first match of the three-match T20 series between India and Sri Lanka will be played in Pallekele today. India won the toss and chose to bowl. Team India has reached Sri Lanka under the leadership of new coach Gautam Gambhir for the Sri Lanka tour. In this tour running from 27 July to 7 August, Team India will play 3-3 match T20 and ODI series. With this, after the retirement of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja, Team India's Mission 2026 will begin under the leadership of new captain Suryakumar Yadav. The next T20 World Cup will be held in the year 2026.

Sri Lanka won the toss

Sri Lanka captain Charith Aslanka won the toss and decided to bowl first against India. At the same time, Suryakumar Yadav named four players who are not playing in this match. These include Washington Sundar, Sanju Samson, Shivam Dubey and Khaleel Ahmed.

Both teams are as follows

India: Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Suryakumar Yadav (captain), Rinku Singh, Riyan Parag, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Rishabh Pant (wicketkeeper), Arshdeep Singh, Ravi Bishnoi, Mohammed Siraj.

Sri Lanka: Avishka Fernando, Charith Asalanka (captain), Pathum Nissanka, Wanindu Hasaranga, Dasun Shanaka, Kusal Mendis, Dinesh Chandimal (wicketkeeper), Mathisha Pathirana, Mahesh Theekshna, Dunith Welalage, Binura Fernando.

Pant and Samson's statistics

If we look at the statistics of Pant and Samson, they look quite similar. Samson has played 28 T20 Internationals so far in which he has scored runs at a strike rate of 133. Of these, he has played 27 matches after 2020, while he made his debut in this format in 2015. He himself admitted that his average of 21.14 is not in accordance with his ability. On the other hand, Pant has played 74 T20 Internationals so far in which he has scored runs at a strike rate of 127. His average is 22.70. Which of these two to select will largely depend on the thinking of the team management. As far as Rohit Sharma is concerned, he had full faith in Pant and this is the reason that despite being a part of the team during the T20 World Cup, there was no discussion about Samson.