India vs Sri Lanka, 2017: 5 Indian players to watch out for

Virat Kohli and his Indian cricket team are set to host their southern neighbours, Sri Lanka, for a three-match Test series that starts on Thursday, November 16. The hosts go into the contest as the overwhelming favourites to take it home 3-0.

Not only is India the Number 1 ranked Test team in the world, but has also whitewashed Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka just a couple of months back. It will truly take a miracle for the visitors to pull off a victory in even one of the three matches.

Here are the Indian players to watch out for in the series:

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#5 Lokesh Rahul

If there was one stint that would be categorized as a successful season for a batsman but would still leave him frustrated, it would be KL Rahul's performance in Tests in 2017.

After the one-off match against Bangladesh in Hyderabad in February this year, Rahul amassed as many as 8 half-centuries in his next 9 Test innings. He even matched the record for the highest number of consecutive half-centuries and now shares it with big names like Everton Weekes, Andy Flower, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Kumar Sangakkara and Chris Roger. He is the first Indian to be a part of this list.

However, the fact that he has scored seven consecutive 50s on the trot also points towards one glaring truth: he hasn't been able to convert any of them into a century. This is a conundrum that must've turned into a pebble in his shoe. The 25-year-old will be pumped to better this record against Sri Lanka by getting a magical three-figure score to his name.

The right-handed batsman was also victim to a rather harsh snub from the ODI format of the game after returning from Sri Lanka. He will be yearning to prove himself right from the first Test at Eden Gardens this Thursday.

#4 Ravichandran Ashwin

The veteran off-spinner was one of the first Indian cricketers to be hit by the ODI rotation policy, which was adopted by the national selection committee during the Sri Lanka tour. His horrendous performance in the final of the Champions Trophy in June this year led to his snub in all the 50-over games that India participated in thereafter.

He was advised by the selectors to play county cricket, and thus, we saw Ashwin representing Worcestershire in England this season. He did well in the limited opportunities he got by scalping as many as 20 wickets in just four matches. He even scored a fifty with the bat in his last match of the season.

He then returned to domestic cricket and has done a decent job for the struggling Tamil Nadu side. He dismissed 11 batsmen in three games and has looked ready for the grind.

The 31-year-old will have a point to prove when he steps onto the field against Sri Lanka on Thursday. He was a major contributor to India's rise in Test cricket in the last two years and will look to maintain his ascendency in the longest format of the game.

In conditions that support his bowling style and against an opposition that is clearly below par, betting for Ashwin to succeed would be second nature to any cricket fan.

#3 Cheteshwar Pujara

Cheteshwar Pujra, like Ashwin, has been actively playing cricket in spite of being away from the shorter formats of the game at the international level.

He has followed a similar pattern as well, from participating in county cricket a couple of months back to playing Ranji cricket earlier this month.

His form in county cricket was a cause of worry, considering he failed to score even one half-century in the eight matches that he played for the Notts in this season. However, he made up for that in his Ranji stint that followed and scored heavily in the last two games he played for Saurashtra.

He scored a gigantic double hundred against Jharkhand earlier this month and followed it up with a massive 182 in Rajkot last week.

His ability to score heavily on subcontinental wickets is what makes him one of the biggest threats to the visiting Sri Lankan team. To add oil to that fire, Pujara was in excellent nick against the same opposition earlier this year. He will definitely be one of the players to follow during this series.

#2 Ravindra Jadeja

Ravindra Jadeja will look to reclaim his top spot in the ICC Test rankings for all-rounders and displace Bangladesh's Shakib Al Hasan from the same. He has also lost his numero uno ranking on the bowlers' list, where England's James Anderson has overtaken him to lead the table. Jadeja will want to be the best in business again and will look to do that against Sri Lanka.

He, too, has been sitting out of the Indian limited-overs squad after India toured West Indies in July this year. The last time he played international cricket was in August, again, in the Sri Lanka series.

Jadeja has also done well for Saurashtra with the bat in Ranji cricket this year. He scored a double century in his first match of the season. The left-hander has been relatively dimmer with the ball, managing to take ten wickets in the three games he has played. This number might look good at the outset, but it is important to note that seven out of those ten wickets have come in the first match alone.

However, Jadeja still remains one of the top Indian cricketers in the longest format of the game and will continue to be a problem for Sri Lanka's side throughout the series.

#1 Virat Kohli

The last time India played Test cricket against Sri Lanka, which is incidentally the last time India played Test cricket, the Indian skipper had scores of 3, 103*, 13 and 42 with a collective average of 53.66 in four innings.

For almost any other batsman in world cricket, these are impressive numbers. For a player of Kohli's caliber, they are below par. This is the kind of standard that he has elevated his game to, in the last few years, especially after taking over the captaincy from MS Dhoni in 2014.

Before Australia toured India for a Test series earlier this year, Kohli had four double centuries in four consecutive series. His impeccable form made every bowling attack kneel before its glory. After that came Steve Smith's inspired team and then followed the tour of Sri Lanka, and Kohli could manage just one century in the seven Tests that transpired.

Again, that's not a tremendously bad stat for an average batsman.

However, Kohli is far from average. He is one of the best in the world, and the 29-year-old will look to assert to that in the upcoming tussle against Dinesh Chandimal's men.

The matches will be played in Kolkata, Nagpur, and Delhi. Kohli has prodigious records in Kolkata and will look to make a positive start to his relationship with Nagpur in the second test. Both these games will give him the opportunity to score heavily against the struggling Sri Lankan bowling attack.

He will most probably be rested for the third game that is to be played at the Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi, but the two opportunities that he will get are more than enough for the Indian skipper to make his mark on the series.