World Cup 2019: India look to end league campaign on a high against SL

India skipper Virat Kohli during a practice session at Headingley, Leeds yesterday. Pic /Getty Images

Leeds: Though the World Cup semi-finalists have been decided, still there is a lot of interest among cricket fans worldwide to see what the match-up would be. The question is: Will India play their Last-4 game in Manchester against New Zealand or take on the hosts in Birmingham on July 11?

The last two league matches today will decide the Top-2 positions in the points table when India take on Sri Lanka here at Headingley and Australia face South Africa in Manchester later in a day-night match. There is no doubt that the Aussies would like to get the better of the Proteas to gain the right to play the struggling Kiwis on July 9 and leave India to tackle the strong England side in Birmingham on July 11.

In their final league game, India would surely like to iron out a few shortcomings, especially their continued trouble with the middle-order and look at the bowling options for the knockouts. In their previous match against Bangladesh, India played Dinesh Karthik as a batsman and it needs to be seen if he will be pursued with or the team management tries out Ravindra Jadeja or just-arrived Mayank Agarwal. Or would India like to give Jasprit Bumrah a rest, though the ace pace bowler himself is against skipping the game. "This is my first World Cup so I'd like to play as many games as possible... the more matches you play, the more you enjoy," was his reaction to suggestions that he might be rested.

Since India are most likely to play England at Edgbaston, they would have to really think hard if they would like to go in with two wrist spinners or play with three pace bowlers, like they did against Bangladesh, by bringing in Bhuvneshwar Kumar in place of Kuldeep Yadav. These are the tricky aspects that the team think-tank would like to test out before going into the semi-finals.

Other than that, they would surely like to keep up the winning momentum, as they have lost just one game to England and the one against New Zealand was washed out. As India have had a few tight games, like the ones against Afghanistan and Bangladesh, they would like to win comprehensively against the Sri Lankans before the tournament hits the knockout stage.

Live on TV
India vs Sri Lanka
Star Sports 1, SS1 Hindi and DD Sports, 15.00

Catch up on all the latest sports news and updates here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates