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Although the visitors would ideally like to make a clean sweep of the series, giving an opportunity to the bench players will be their priority in the remaining two matches.
Everything has gone well for Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his men in the series and the team will be keen to keep the winning sequence going for a record ninth consecutive match on Thursday.
The Indian batting has been far superior than the home team and the bowling has also been quite disciplined to bring about the desired results.
Dhoni made it clear after yesterday's match that giving reserve players a chance to prove themselves was more important than retaining the winning squad in pursuit of their record ninth straight ODI win.
"We are not looking at the record. Rather, we will give chance to players who didn't get a chance to play in the series so far," Dhoni said.
"We are 3-0 up and have already won the series. It gives us an opportunity to play those players. For us, this is the priority. The team is not looking at the record but giving chance to those players," he said.
India humiliated Sri Lanka with a 147-run win under floodlights at the R Premadasa stadium yesterday to seal the series.
Sri Lanka, however, have only pride to play for in the remaining matches which are of mere academic interest now. The home side, who are playing non-stop cricket for last five months, will be under pressure to regroup and rediscover their winning form.
Captain Mahela Jayawardene will have to ensure that his team executed the game plan well to win the next two matches and reclaim their confidence ahead of the busy season.
Jayawardene admitted his team was not up to the standard of Dhoni's India and there were some grey areas to be fixed, especially the bowling which was absolutely off the mark on Tuesday.
"There are certain areas we need to tighten up. Against a good opposition like India, certain things were not up to the standard," he said.
"We'll definitely have a chat with the selectors now but we need our best team to win the next two matches, which is very important to get back the confidence. We have a lot of cricket ahead," he said.
The home side's main area of concern would be their bowling after the way Ferveez Maharoof and Dilhara Fernando performed in the third match returning figures of 7-0-68-0 and 8-0-63-1 respectively.
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Dhoni as captain is very good but he can do more runs in the 3rd match.
Veeru plays very well. Heis the real hero of the Indian Team.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni time to brush up ur batting skills...... Captains Men perform Captian :-(
Dhoni is very correct in testing the bench. We have Irfan Pathan, L Balaji and Ravi Jadeja on bench. These guys can win matches as well. If there is a crunch game in future and main players are not fit, it is useless to have in-experianced reserved players. This series is a rare opportunity to test bench strength.
I don't think dhoni really needs to brush up his batting skills..he is a sensible player...recent proof was his responsible batting against SL in first ODI while india was chasing the target and when wicket kept falling in a quick session
This is extremely stupid of Dhoni to say, "We are not looking at the record. Rather, we will give chance to players who didn't get a chance to play in the series so far". There should not be any compromise on winning a game for the Country over any other excuse. The winning combination should be retained and changes made only on injury. The reserves will have plenty of chance to play in IPL and matches where any of the current 11 players are injured.
Thank God Tarashankar is not at the helm because his stupid ideas will sink India. He does not know that grooming player is most important thing other wise you can't win. Tarashankar just keep mum rather than letting whole world know how stupid you are.
Whats the importance of thiese dead matches. Who cares about who wins? One should try the bench strentgh to develop the team even further. Otherwise the reserves might have to suddenly come in at a tense moment in a crucial game.
look buddy... in every field of life there are two type of success. one is short term and another is long term. team India is playing well, but its also good thinkink to give chance to the bench player.... coz behind any long term success of any sport team is their bench stamina.... at least u ll hv lots of options..
doni doni doniiiiiiiiii keep up the good work buddy, but try to experiment with the bench but at the same time you need to keep this in mind tht u cant loose any more matches, this is a very diffcult task but u can do it buddy u hav worlds best pleayers in ur line up all the best indiaaaaa indiaaaaaaaaa indaaaaaaa
While trying for a clean sweep of the series, Dony's proposal to give chance to the reserve players is welcome. Keep it up Team India. Keep on winning