Ausi vs Lanka…Dominant Lanka face confident Australia

Sri Lanka and Australia have met in three bi-lateral Twenty20 Internationals and on all three occasions Sri Lanka have come up trumps.

However the fourth meeting between the two teams which takes place at Pallekele Stadium today could see a change in fortunes for the visitors who have picked themselves up very well from the 0-3 whitewash they suffered in the Test series to beat Sri Lanka pretty convincingly 4-1 in the five-match one-day international series that ended on Sunday.

Although Australia won the fifth ODI it came at a price because they lost two of their key players who make up their T20 squad. Star batsman Aaron Finch fractured his finger and Chris Lynn dislocated his shoulder to be ruled out of the two T20 internationals against Sri Lanka.

Lynn has a dislocated left shoulder suffered during a routine fielding drill before the fifth ODI and Finch was forced from the field during the Sri Lanka innings when he hurt his right index finger attempting a catch which later was confirmed as a fracture.

One-day specialists – wicket-keeper Mathew Wade and batsman George Bailey will replace them in the T20 squad.

Australia will also be strengthened by the inclusion of hard-hitting all-rounder Glenn Maxwell, a surprise omission in the ODI series. Maxwell’s last innings against Sri Lanka was a brutal 102 off 53 balls in a World Cup match at Sydney last year, an innings which Sri Lankan bowlers picked in the squad for the two T20Is will remember – Sachitra Senanayake, Seekkuge Prasanna, Thisara Perera and Tillakaratne Dilshan.

Dilshan who retired from ODIs in the third match of the series will play his final two T20Is against Australia before stepping down from that format also. His final appearance is scheduled for September 9 when Sri Lanka and Australia play the second T20I at the R Premadasa Stadium where a sell-out crowd is expected to turn up.

Dilshan is the leading run-getter for Sri Lanka in the T20I series between the two countries with 247 runs from 8 matches and is also the only batsmen from either side to score a hundred in this short format.

Certain comments the retiring veteran made at the end of the third ODI have not gone down well with some of the team members, one of whom Angelo Mathews will not be present at his farewell after a grade two tear on his right calf ruled him out of the final ODI and the two T20Is.