Rohit Sharma-led Team India takes on Sri Lanka in the pink-ball Test at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Saturday. In the first Test, India thrashed Sri Lanka by an innings and 222 runs at the IS Bindra PCA Stadium in Mohali.

For the Sri Lanka series, India dropped Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane for the first time in five years. Since both had been going through a poor patch of form, they were urged to play and prove their worth in domestic cricket. In their absence, Hanuma Vihari and Shreyas Iyer replaced Pujara and Rahane respectively. In the Mohali Test, Vihari scored a resolute half-century (58 off 128 deliveries) and would be aiming to continue to build on the momentum in the final Test in Bengaluru.

The pink-ball Test against Sri Lanka is India’s only third day-night game at home; the side had won both of their previous matches against Bangladesh and England earlier. Ahead of the game, former India captain and legendary batter Sunil Gavaskar had a piece of advice for Vihari.

“Basically, don’t go ahead of yourselves. Sometimes, you do go ahead of yourselves and that is acceptable when there is a declaration on the bounce. Otherwise, just focus on the next ball that is going to come,” Gavaskar said in the pre-match show on Star Sports.

“The moment you start to get a little pre-determined and the ball is not in the area that you are looking to play the shot, you can get into trouble. Otherwise, nothing needs to be changed at all,” Gavaskar added further.

Earlier in the afternoon, Team India captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and opted to bat in the second Test. India made one change to their playing side as Axar Patel returned to the XI, replacing Jayant Yadav. Patel took 11 wickets against England in India’s last day-night test.

In the first Test, Ravindra Jadeja proved to be the star of the match for scoring 175 not out and taking nine wickets.