India To Make 6 Changes? Men in Blue's Likely Playing XI For Asia Cup 2023 Final Against Sri Lanka

On Sunday (September 17), India will face Sri Lanka in the Asia Cup 2023 final. The match is set to begin at 3 p.m. IST at the R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo. The Men in Blue enter Sunday's encounter after a narrow six-run defeat to Bangladesh in their final Super Fours match on Friday.

However, India rested up to five first-team players in that match to test bench strength, and they will all be back in the side for the summit clash, along with star middle-order batter Shreyas Iyer, who has recovered well from a back spasm and was seen batting in the nets on Thursday (September 14).

Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Mohammed Shami, Prasidh Krishna, and Axar Patel will replace Virat Kohli, Hardik Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, and Mohammed Siraj, who were rested for India's final Super Fours match on Friday.

Star all-rounder Axar sustained an injury while batting against Bangladesh and will not participate in the final, therefore Washington Sundar has been added to the squad in his place. However, he is unlikely to be favoured over Shardul Thakur, who took three wickets in the previous encounter.

If Iyer is available for selection, Ishan Kishan will almost certainly make way for him in the starting XI. Ishan made 82 runs in the team's first Asia Cup 2023 encounter against Pakistan on September 2 to secure his spot in the ODI World Cup 2023 squad as well, but his failure to rotate the strike is extremely obvious, and it will take some time for him to develop his ODI game.

India’s likely XI for the Asia Cup 2023 final against Sri Lanka: Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer/Ishan Kishan, KL Rahul (WK), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj