Pallekele International Cricket Stadium, Kandy – Venue Details & Pitch Report

Average First Innings Score in ODIs since 2020: 279

Batting First vs Batting Second in ODIs since 2020: Win Bat 1st - 62%, Win Bat 2nd - 38% 

IND-NEP Players in the top 10 leading run-scorers list in ODIs since 2020: None

IND-NEP Players in the top 10 leading wicket-takers list in ODIs since 2020:  None

Pitch Report: Rain is forecasted for most of the day at Pallekele. In the last match we saw pacers take advantage of these conditions. 

Predicted Playing XI - India vs Nepal, Match 5, Asia Cup 2023

India: Rohit Sharma©, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Ishan Kishan(wk), Shreyas Iyer, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Mohammad Siraj

Nepal: Kushal Bhurtel, Aasif Sheikh(wk), Rohit Paudel©, Aarif Sheikh, Sompal Kami, Gulsan Jha, Dipendra Singh Airee, Kushal Malla, Sandeep Lamichhane, Karan KC, Lalit Rajbanshi

Fantasy Notes - India vs Nepal, Match 5, Asia Cup 2023

Points to Consider

  • Jasprit Bumrah is unavailable for the match against Nepal as he is travelling back home for personal reasons. Mohammad Shami is expected to replace him in the XI for this match.
  • The general consensus will be to make your teams in favour of the much strong Indian team. With that in mind, the top-order batters from India are almost default picks as we will be taking very big risks if we were to consider dropping any of them.
  • Nepal has some good bowlers who are capable of troubling the Indian batters including Karan KC who picked up 12 wickets in 6 World Cup Qualifier matches recently. He also troubled Pakistan's top order in the Asia Cup opener. 
  • Shreyas Iyer is selected in just 19% of the teams currently and this gives us a good opportunity to back him as a differential against a weaker team. If you want to pick him in place of any Indian batter, it could be Shubman Gill as he has been in very mixed touch recently and also struggled against the moving balls against Pakistan.
  • Gulsan Jha (8.4%) is a capable lower-order batter and also a decent bowler capable of providing key breakthroughs. Consider backing him as a differential for his allround value. 
  • If India bowls first, we will look to load up on their bowlers as they will be expected to pick up all 10 wickets of Nepal's batting. 

 

Note: Return after 15 minutes of the toss for a fully updated XI, Also stay tuned to our telegram channel for regular updates

Stats Credit: Cricinfo, Cricmetric

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