India Vs Sri Lanka, 5th ODI: Dominant India eye series clean sweep

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Colombo, September 2: A rampaging India, 4-0 up in the ODI series, will fancy their chances of completing a 5-0 whitewash of Sri Lanka when they face the beleaguered hosts in the fifth and final one-day international here on Sunday (September 3).

The visitors already swept the Test series 3-0. Sri Lanka are in danger of losing a second successive ODI series to India by a 5-0 margin.

The last time these two sides played a bilateral series in November 2014, a depleted Lankan side lost 5-0 in India.

Their fortunes haven't changed much since and another loss would be a serious body blow for the hosts in what has been a traumatic summer of cricket.

They have already foregone the opportunity to automatically qualify for the 2019 ODI World Cup by failing to win two matches in this series.

There are no injury concerns and the same playing combination can expect to be retained on the morrow, with the likes of Manish Pandey, Kuldeep Yadav and Shardul Thakur given further opportunity to impress.

It remains to be seen if Hardik Pandya will be given a break and Kedar Jadhav afforded another chance to impress, ahead of a long limited-overs' schedule at home.

Ajinkya Rahane is the only batsman not to get game time in this series. With Rohit Sharma coming back and scoring runs, and Shikhar Dhawan in good form, the team management has so far not toyed with the opening combination.

There is a chance that he could be given a game ahead of Dhawan in the final ODI, even if only to cement his spot as the designated third-choice opener.

This also puts the spotlight on KL Rahul who was given a middle-order role in the current ODI series, specifically keeping the preparation for the next World Cup in mind. So far that experiment hasn't worked with Rahul returning scores of 4, 17 and 7 in his three outings.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka are expected to make at least one change to their playing XI. Skipper Upul Tharanga will be back in charge of affairs after sitting out the last two games owing to his suspension for slow over rate.

Teams: India: Virat Kohli (Capt), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Manish Pandey, Ajinkya Rahane, Kedar Jadhav, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Shardul Thakur.

Sri Lanka: Upul Tharanga (Capt), Lasith Malinga, Dhananjaya de Silva, Dilshan Munaweera, Lahiru Thirimanna, Angelo Mathews, Niroshan Dickwella, Kusal Mendis, Milinda Siriwardana, Malinda Pushpakumara, Akila Dananjaya, Lakshan Sandakan, Thisara Perera, Wanindu Hasaranga, Dushmantha Chameera, Vishwa Fernando.

Live on: Sony, TEN; Match starts at: 2.30 p.m.