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Colombo: Both Sri Lanka and India will make changes in their line-ups for the fifth and final One-Day International (ODI) today.
India have already won the series 3-1 and the final match will be a dead rubber, but for the Sri Lankans their pride is at stake after their poor showing in the series.
India will rest left-arm seamer Zaheer Khan, who had a good series, and he is replaced by R P Singh, who has not played any cricket at all despite being on tour from the start.
The Indians were also contemplating bringing in left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojah, resting off-spinner Harbhajan Singh, while M S Dhoni will play as a specialist batsman and Parthiv Patel will keep wickets, something that was done when the duo teamed up for the IPL Twenty-20 matches for Madras Super Kings. Batsman Subramaniam Badrinath will make way for Patel.
New combination
The Sri Lankans have lost patience with middle-order batsman Tillekeratne Dilshan and he will be replaced by Jehan Mubarak. Moving away from the six batsmen five bowlers combination, the Sri Lankans will settle for a seven batsmen four bowlers line- up and will rest veterans Chaminda Vaas and Muttiah Muralitharan. Dilhara Fernando will come in for Vaas while batsman Mahela Udawatte will be the additional batsman.
"Our pride is at stake. I don't think we played consistent cricket and this gives us an opportunity to finish off the series with a win," Sri Lanka's captain Mahela Jayawardene said.
Teams
Sri Lanka: Mahela Jayawardene (Captain), Sanath Jayasuriya, Kumar Sangakkara, Chamara Kapugedara, Chamara Silva, Tillekeratne Dilshan, Chaminda Vaas, Nuwan Kulasekara, Thilan Tushara Mirando, Ajantha Mendis, Muttiah Muralitharan, Dilhara Fernando, Malinda Warnapura, Jehan Mubarak and Mahela Udawatte.
India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt), Subramaniam Badrinath, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli, Parthiv Patel, Irfan Pathan, Praveen Kumar, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Rudra Pratap Singh, Munaf Patel and Pragyan Ojha.
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