Sri Lanka face India in the Asian Games semi-final with four uncapped players

Sri Lanka have kept only two players from the side England beat 3-0 this month, and four of the squad in Japan have never played an international

Sri Lanka meet India in the second men's semi-final of the Asian Games at Korogi Sports Park in Nisshin on Thursday, with a place in Saturday's gold-medal match at stake. Neither side has taken the field in the tournament.

The squad Sri Lanka Cricket sent to Japan bears almost no resemblance to the one that lost every match of its T20I series in England this month. Only Nuwan Thushara and Tharindu Ratnayake were named in both.

Sahan Arachchige captains the 15, with Niroshan Dickwella back in the T20I setup after five years away and four players called up for the first time.

Two survivors from the England tour

England won all three T20Is in September. They made 254 for 4 at the Rose Bowl and won by 119 runs, then chased 146 in Cardiff for the loss of four wickets.

The series closed at Old Trafford on 19 September, where Sri Lanka were bowled out for 124 and England won by eight wickets.

Charith Asalanka led that side, having taken the job after Kusal Mendis was ruled out injured. Thushara and Ratnayake are the only two players carried over to Japan, with Binura Fernando returning to the attack after an injury.

Four maiden call-ups and two recalls

Sineth Jayawardena, Sohan de Livera, Wanuja Sahan and Garuka Sanketh were all named in a Sri Lanka squad for the first time.

Dickwella's is the longer absence. The wicketkeeper has been out of the T20I setup for five years, and Ashen Bandara returns after three.

The rest is drawn from the fringe of the national side, with Chamika Karunaratne the senior all-rounder, Vijayakanth Viyaskanth and Dushan Hemantha the spin options, and Lasith Croospulle and Nuwanidu Fernando among the batters.

Arachchige leads a second-string side again

This is the second Asian Games Arachchige has captained. He led Sri Lanka at Hangzhou in 2023, when the board sent a secondary squad because the senior players were preparing for the ODI World Cup.

That campaign ended at the quarter-final stage. The 30-year-old batting all-rounder, who plays his domestic cricket for Nondescripts Cricket Club, made his international debut in 2023.

India travel with their first-choice group

India's squad is the opposite proposition. Shreyas Iyer captains, Tilak Varma is his deputy, and the party includes Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Sanju Samson, Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Shivam Dube, Ravi Bishnoi and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.

Their one enforced change came before the tournament. Varun Chakravarthy suffered a side strain bowling in the opening T20I against Afghanistan, a match that marked his return from a hamstring problem, and was ruled out.

Vipraj Nigam was named as the replacement, a maiden India call-up for the Delhi Capitals all-rounder, who has taken 13 wickets in 19 IPL matches. Nitish Kumar Reddy was withdrawn separately after being picked for the ODI series against West Indies.

The rankings decide it if the rain returns

All four quarter-finals on 28 and 29 September were abandoned without a toss, and the higher-ranked side in each went through on the ICC men's T20I rankings. Sri Lanka advanced that way against Nepal.

The same rule governs the semi-finals, and it does not favour them. India are ranked above Sri Lanka, so an abandoned match on Thursday would put India in the final and send Sri Lanka home without a ball bowled at these Games.

Bangladesh and Pakistan play the first semi-final at the same ground earlier in the day, at 9am local time.

India and Sri Lanka start at 2pm local time, 10.30am IST, with the gold-medal match to follow at Korogi Sports Park on Saturday 3 October.

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