Weather dominates discussion ahead of India-Sri Lanka semifinal

Nisshin: With their preparation hampered by rain, a full strength yet rusty India will need to adapt quickly against a second string Sri Lanka in the men's cricket semifinals of the Asian Games here on Thursday.

Heavy rain has not allowed India to train much since their arrival in Nagoya. In fact, their only proper practice session was scheduled on the eve of the semifinal with the skies clearing up.

However, the weather forecast is clear for Thursday and Friday before the rain threat returns for the final on Saturday.


All four quarterfinals had to be abandoned with teams progressing on the basis of their ICC rankings.

Effectively, all four teams who have made the semifinals are yet to take the part in the competition so far. The other semifinal will be played between Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Back-to-back T20 World Cup champions India are overwhelming favourites for the gold medal and if the weather permits on Thursday, the match should be a cakewalk for the Shreyas Iyer-led side considering Sri Lanka are not here with their strongest team.

The league games were low scoring affairs and with moisture locked underneath the surface due to rain is expected to make the pitch slower and sluggish.

Having arrived in Japan on September 20, India have only had the chance to play 5-over a side bilateral contest against Japan near Tokyo.

Ahead of the rained out quarterfinal against Afghanistan, Iyer had acknowledged that lack of training due to wet weather was an issue but said that as professionals, it can't be used as an excuse for their performance on the field.

If the semifinal too is washed out, India will reach the final based on their number one position in the ICC rankings. Sri Lanka are ninth while Pakistan are sixth and Bangladesh eighth.

If the second semifinal too is impacted by rain, Pakistan will advance based on their superior ranking.

The gold medal will be shared if the weather plays spoilsport in the final scheduled for October 3.

Squads

India: Sanju Samson(w), Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer(c), Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Ravi Bishnoi, Yash Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Washington Sundar, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Vipraj Nigam

Sri Lanka: Ashen Bandara, Lasith Croospulle, Sineth Jayawardena, Niroshan Dickwella(w), Nuwanidu Fernando, Sahan Arachchige(c), Chamika Karunaratne, Dushan Hemantha, Binura Fernando, Vijayakanth Viyaskanth, Nuwan Thushara, Tharindu Ratnayake, Wanuja Sahan, Sohan de Livera, Garuka Sanketh.

Match starts 10 am IST.