IND vs SL, 3rd ODI: Five debutants for India only second time in history

The only other time when India had five debutants in an ODI was against Australia in December 1980 at the MCG when spinner Dilip Doshi, Kirti Azad, Roger Binny, Sandeep Patil and Tirumalai Srinivasan made their debuts.

India's Sanju Samson plays a shot during the third ODI against Sri Lanka in Colombo.

The ongoing third One-Day International between India and Sri Lanka here is only the second instance in history when India handed debuts to five players in a 50-over match.

After sealing the three-match series on Tuesday, five rookies – aggressive left-handed batsman Nitish Rana, leg-spinner Rahul Chahar, left-arm pacer Chetan Sakariya, off-spinner Krishnappa Gowtham and wicket-keeper Sanju Samson, made their ODI debuts.

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Chahar and Samson have already played T20 Internationals for India but got their ODI caps on Friday at the R Premadasa Stadium.

The only other time when India had five debutants in an ODI was against Australia in December 1980 at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground when spinner Dilip Doshi, Kirti Azad, Roger Binny, Sandeep Patil and Tirumalai Srinivasan made their debuts.

Left-handed batsman and wicket-keeper Ishan Kishan and middle-order batsman Suryakumar Yadav had made their ODI debuts in the first game at the same venue.