All eyes on Sooryavanshi as India A face Sri Lanka A in final

Dambulla (PTI): Smarting from an ill-tempered defeat in their previous meeting, India A will look to settle scores when they take on Sri Lanka A in the final of the tri-series here on Sunday, with teenage sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi set to be in the spotlight once again.

Tempers had flared after Sri Lanka A edged India A in a Super Over in their last league game in Dambulla, with Sooryavanshi involved in an on-field altercation with Sri Lanka's Vishen Halambage at the end of the match.

After the game was tied at the end of 50 overs, Sri Lanka A scored 16 in the Super Over and then restricted India A to nine, with rookie pacer Kugathas Mathulan, a slinger in the mould of Matheesha Pathirana, keeping Sooryavanshi and Suryansh Shedge quiet.

The tension spilled over after the match ended. Halambage and Wanuja Sahan were seen exchanging words with the departing Indian batters, with visuals showing Shedge pointing his bat towards Halambage before Sooryavanshi turned back and got into a heated exchange with the Sri Lankan player.

The two were then seen shoving each other before wicketkeeper Niroshan Dickwella stepped in to separate them, in ugly scenes rarely witnessed in an A team match.

It remains to be seen whether both teams have moved on from that episode, but the focus will firmly be on Sooryavanshi, both for his temperament and his batting on Dambulla's slow surfaces.

The 15-year-old, who was recently named in India's senior squad for the upcoming T20I series against Ireland and England, has already enjoyed a breakthrough IPL.

He had a record-breaking IPL 2026 season, smashing 776 runs in 16 matches at a staggering strike-rate of 237.31, including 72 sixes.

Coming to Sri Lanka after riding the IPL high and a maiden India call-up, Sooryavanshi has found the slow pitches in Dambulla a bigger test, with the conditions curbing his natural strokeplay.

The flamboyant left-hander has not quite been able to convert his starts. In four matches so far, he has scored 14, 44, 21 and 38.

He looked scratchy in India's must-win game against Afghanistan A in the last outing, surviving a few anxious moments before making 38, and the onus would be on him to bounce back in style.

India A, however, would take confidence from the way they bounced back from the Sri Lanka defeat to beat Afghanistan A and seal a place in the final. Asked to defend 319/9, they bowled Afghanistan out for 218 in 36.5 overs.

Captain Tilak Varma, Priyansh Arya and Kumar Kushagra struck half-centuries in that game, while left-arm spinner Nishant Sindhu led the bowling effort with 4/31.

Ruturaj Gaikwad has been India's batting mainstay in the competition, aggregating 234 runs including a century, and the team will once again look to him for stability at No. 3 if the openers fail to provide a brisk start.

India A will also hope to be sharper in the field after conceding 10 penalty runs in the previous game against Sri Lanka A when Vipraj Nigam was penalised twice for running on the danger area.

With the ball, India A will expect Arshad Khan and Yash Thakur to provide early breakthroughs.

Arshad had done particularly well in the earlier game against Sri Lanka A, conceding just four runs in the 50th over to force the match into a Super Over.

On slow tracks, much will also rest on the spin unit comprising Nishant Sindhu, Nigam and Anukul Roy.

Sindhu had removed Sri Lanka's in-form opener Avishka Fernando in the last meeting and will again be a key figure in the middle overs.

For Sri Lanka A, Fernando remains the biggest threat with the bat, having struck two centuries in his last three innings, and is leading the run charts with 285 runs from four matches.

Mathulan, who impressed in the Super Over win, will be the one to watch with the ball for the hosts. The slingy pacer has taken six wickets in three innings and has already shown he can be a decisive factor in crunch situations.

Teams (from):

India A: Tilak Varma (C), Priyansh Arya, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Ayush Badoni, Nishant Sindhu, Harsh Dubey, Suryansh Shedge, Prabhsimran Singh (wk), Kumar Kushagra (wk), Vipraj Nigam, Yash Thakur, Yudhvir Singh, Anshul Kamboj, Arshad Khan.

Sri Lanka A: Sahan Arachchige (C), Niroshan Dickwella (wk), Avishka Fernando, Nuwanidu Fernando, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Chamika Karunaratne, Vijayakanth Viyaskanth, Ravindu Fernando, Vishen Halambage, Dulaj Samuditha, Mohamed Shiraz, Ahan Wickramasinghe, Kugathas Mathulan, Wanuja Sahan, Chamika Gunasekara, Garuka Sanketh.

Match starts: 10am IST.