Colombo, July 23 (IANS) India, who are fielding five debutants in the third and final ODI against Sri Lanka, have won the toss and elected to bat here at the R Premadasa Stadium on Friday.

Sanju Samson, Nitish Rana, Chetan Sakariya, K Gowtham and Rahul Chahar are playing their first ODI.

This is only the second time India are featuring five debutants in an ODI after the inaugural ODI in 1974. The last time they fielded so many debutants was against Australia in 1980.

India have already won the first two ODIs, beating Sri Lanka by seven wickets and three wickets.

Playing XIs

India: Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan (captain), Sanju Samson (wicketkeeper), Manish Pandey, Suryakumar Yadav, Nitish Rana, Hardik Pandya, Krishnappa Gowtham, Rahul Chahar, Navdeep Saini, Chetan Sakariya.

Sri Lanka: Avishka Fernando, Minod Bhanuka (wicketkeeper), Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Dhananjaya de Silva, Charith Asalanka, Dasun Shanaka (captain), Ramesh Mendis, Chamika Karunaratne, Akila Dananjaya, Dushmantha Chameera, Praveen Jayawickrama.

--IANS kh/