Bad weather and heavy rains threaten to play the spoilsport in Dharamsala for the second India-Sri Lanka T20I on Saturday (February 26). 1-0 up in the series, India will be aiming to seal the series in their favour. But torrential Dharamsala rains could well jeopardise their plans against the Lankan Lions. The game is scheduled […]
Bad weather and heavy rains threaten to play the spoilsport in Dharamsala for the second India-Sri Lanka T20I on Saturday (February 26). 1-0 up in the series, India will be aiming to seal the series in their favour. But torrential Dharamsala rains could well jeopardise their plans against the Lankan Lions.
The game is scheduled for IST 7 PM start, which would also kick-off a four-hour window when the weather forecast in Dharamsala is for constant rain, thunderstorms with the temperatures potentially falling as low as 6-7 degrees celsius.
The weather in the state of Himachal Pradesh has only worsened over the last few hours, with heavy rains and excessive cold forcing the HPCA Stadium square to be completely covered ahead of the India-Sri Lanka game.
The HPCA Stadium in Dharamsala has been under covers for past few days.
Dharamsala is also scheduled to host the third T20I on Sunday (February 27). If the first of the pair of T20Is get completely washed out by rain, it will be the second such instance at the venue in last two years, with India’s scheduled opening ODI against South Africa back in March 2020 also getting abandoned due to torrential rains.
In the current scenario, the possibility of the second T20I getting rained out would rob Sri Lankan an opportunity to comeback in the series after losing the opening game in Lucknow on Thursday (February 24) by 62 runs.
From the Indian perspective, the game presents them an opportunity to not only seal the series with an unassailable 2-0 lead but also to stretch their ongoing T20I streak. Since disappointingly losing the pair of T20Is versus Pakistan and New Zealand at the start of the T20 World Cup last year, India have been on a winning spree of 10 matches in the format.
Successive wins against Afghanistan, Scotland and Namibia at the World Cup have been followed by 3-0 whitewashes over New Zealand in November and West Indies in February, respectively, which preceded India’s Lucknow victory over Sri Lanka. The Dharamshala fixture, thus, gives India a chance to extend their winning streak by 11 matches.
Ahead of the encounter, India have lost back-up opener Ruturaj Gaikwad to a wrist injury, with Mayank Agarwal called in as his replacement. Captain Rohit Sharma had confirmed that Gaikwad was due to play the Lucknow T20I but a wrist injury picked up at the nets that day has now ruled him out of the entire series.
