IND vs SL preview, ICC CWC 19: India look to make the most in dead rubber

The clash between India cricket team and Sri Lanka cricket team in the 44th match of the ICC World Cup 2019 at the Headingley Cricket Ground on Saturday might be a dead rubber of sorts on paper, but a lot is at stake if one digs in deep.

Check Match 44 (Ind vs SL) Live score, toss updates and match commentary

While India can keep chances of finishing the group stages of the 2019 World Cup as the top placed team alive, for Lanka it will be all about bowing out with a win against one of the tournament favourites.

Having struggled right through the tournament, this will be Lanka's ultimate chance to redeem themselves when they take on Virat Kohli's men at Headingley. More than the lack of ability, it has been a case of lack of consistency as the Lankan players have shown individual brilliance in phases.

While Kusal Perera leads the batting chart with 255 runs from six innings, he is followed by Dimuth Karunaratne as the captain has 212 runs to his name. Only three other batsmen have scored in triple figures and that speaks volumes of their failure to adapt.

In the bowling department, Lasith Malinga leads the show with 12 wickets from six games. While three of the players are still stuck with five wickets from six games.

For India, it will again be about cementing the fourth batsmen's slot as they inch closer to the business end. While Rishabh Pant has been given the position with the bat, the others also need to pitch in and support his endeavour.

But the team for now is happy to see him bat at no.4. And if Pant can repose the faith shown in him by the selectors and team management by scoring some runs, that will be the icing on the cake.

The bowling attack too, could wear a tricky look as there were talks of roping in Ravindra Jadeja in place of Dinesh Karthik for the last message. The rest of the bowlers pick themselves.

In fact, such has been the nature of the wickets that captains winnings the toss have not hesitated before deciding to bat first. All in all, it will be a tough battle between two teams from the sub continent.

India vs Sri Lanka head-to-head in World Cup 

Both the teams have faced each other on eight occasions and Sri Lanka have won four times while India have won thrice with one of the matches being abandoned

India vs Sri Lanka playng 11 prediction

India playing 11: KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli (c), Rishabh Pant, Dinesh Karthik, MS Dhoni (wk), Hardik Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah.

Sri Lanka playing 11: Dimuth Karunaratne,  Avishka Fernando, Suranga Lakmal, Lasith Malinga, Angelo Mathews, Jeevan Mendis, Kusal Perera (wk), Dhananjaya de Silva, Isuru Udana, Jeffrey Vandersay, Kasun Ranjitha

Conditions

It's expected to be warm and sunny for the most part. The pitch should be good for batting, but is likely to slow down as the match progresses.

ICC World Cup 2019, Match 44: India vs Sri Lanka streaming details

Date and Day: July 6, 2019, Saturday.

Place: Headingley, Leeds 

Time: 3:00 pm IST, 10:00 am local time

The World Cup 2019 India vs Sri Lanka match live streaming will be available live on Star Sports 1 HD, Star Sports 1 with English Commentary and Star Sports 1 Hindi, Star Sports 1 Hindi HD with Hindi Commentary. The live streaming of the World Cup 2019 India vs Sri Lanka will be available on Hotstar.

Squads

Sri Lanka: Dimuth Karunaratne (c), Avishka Fernando, Suranga Lakmal, Lasith Malinga, Angelo Mathews, Jeevan Mendis, Kusal Mendis (wk), Kusal Perera (wk), Thisara Perera, Dhananjaya de Silva, Milinda Siriwardana, Lahiru Thirimanne, Isuru Udana, Jeffrey Vandersay, Kasun Ranjitha

India: Virat Kohli (c), Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal, MS Dhoni (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul, Mohammed Shami, Mayank Agarwal, Rohit Sharma, Kuldeep Yadav