"It's really disappointing, as a good Test cricketing country, to have only four Tests," Dhananjaya said on the eve of the two-Test series against Australia. "Honestly, it is a big disadvantage, especially considering ours is a good side, as well.

"I'm hoping we can get more fixtures than we have. We're hoping to discuss the opportunity to play more Test series and hopefully we get an open window for that. Hopefully Sri Lanka Cricket can organise something. But all we can do is control what we can, and play good cricket in the matches that we do get."

"We were close to getting to the WTC final," Dhananjaya said. "We have a good side and we were unlucky in a couple of games. If you take the two Tests we lost to Pakistan [at the start of the cycle] that was a big drawback. But we need to finish the cycle strong. If we can get to No. 3, then we will be satisfied."

Toss India chose to bowl vs England

On what is expected to be the best surface for batting in the series so far, Surykumar was again keen to chase. "It looks nice and hard and I don't think it's going to change," he said.

Shami's return in place of the rested Arshdeep Singh is a significant moment after ankle surgery ruled him out of action for the whole of 2024. His last T20I was also against England, in the semi-final of the 2022 T20 World Cup.

Buttler confirmed that he too would have looked to field first. "We fought hard and pushed them all the way," he said of England's improved performance in the second T20I. "We need to be at our best tonight."

England had already named an unchanged team, with Jacob Bethell continuing to sit out after illness and Jamie Smith taking the gloves from Phil Salt due to what Buttler described as a "tight calf".

India: 1 Sanju Samson (wk), 2 Abhishek Sharma, 3 Tilak Varma, 4 Suryakumar Yadav (capt), 5 Hardik Pandya, 6 Dhruv Jurel, 7 Axar Patel, 8 Washington Sundar, 9 Ravi Bishnoi, 10 Mohammed Shami, 11 Varun Chakravarthy

England: Phil Salt, 2 Ben Duckett, 3 Jos Buttler (capt), 4 Harry Brook, 5 Liam Livingstone, 6 Jamie Smith (wk), 7 Jamie Overton, 8 Brydon Carse, 9 Jofra Archer, 10 Mark Wood, 11 Adil Rashid

Fernando has taken 79 Test wickets, including four in his last outing in South Africa in December, and will be available for Warwickshire's Division One games in April.

He impressed last summer in a three-match stint with Yorkshire, taking 17 wickets including nine in the match against Derbyshire, and went on to feature in Sri Lanka's Test tour of England, including a key role in their victory at the Kia Oval in the third Test.

He could make his Warwickshire debut in their season opener against Sussex, starting on April 4, and will also be available to play against another former club, Durham, and in Warwickshire's home fixture against Nottinghamshire from April 18.

"I am thrilled to be joining Warwickshire for the early stages of the season," Fernando said. "Playing county cricket has been hugely enjoyable for me over the last two years.

"The county have some very good cricketers and I am looking forward to playing with Alex Davies, Ed Barnard and all the boys.

"When I step on to the field for any team I always give 100 percent and the loyal Bears fans will get my absolute heart and soul in every day I am there.

"I am grateful to Cricket Sri Lanka for allowing me this opportunity and thankful to Mark Robinson for believing in my ability."

"We are delighted to have secured Vishwa for the first three rounds of the County Championship," Robinson, Warwickshire's first-team coach, said. "He's a proven international bowler and, a left-armer, who will offer us great variation to complement our attack.

"He did well for Yorkshire last season in a brief stay, took plenty of wickets, and we hope he can help us get off to a strong start this campaign."

Prospective investors in Hundred franchises have expressed their frustration with the ECB's sales process, which will be determined by final bids in the next two weeks. Bidders fear that the efforts they have put into building relationships with potential partners over the past five months may have been wasted, with the process ultimately determined by "pure financial factors".

Some prospective investors have raised their frustrations that the final stage of the process will be determined by a straightforward financial offer. This has come as a surprise to some bidders, who believed that host venues would consider all final-round offers and choose their preferred partner based on the extensive discussions they have held over the past five months.

"It's coming down to the highest number wins," an associate close to a bid team told ESPNcricinfo. "If that's been the case from the start, then such a drawn-out and confusing process could have been avoided. We, like many, have a compelling case that goes beyond pure financial factors.

"The bidders in this process are very successful people both from the sporting and business worlds. But the whole thing has been unpredictable, and has changed throughout, which has been concerning. This is such a crucial moment in time for the game in England: let's hope all things have been considered with regards to partnerships versus financial gain."

ECB defend 'thorough and rigorous' process

The ECB denies that the sales will simply be a case of the highest bidder winning, and defended their process as "thorough and rigorous". They argue that the first two stages of the process saw more than 100 initial expressions of interest cut down significantly in collaboration with the eight host venues, depending on their preferences, with some lucrative offers counted out.

Richard Gould, the ECB's chief executive, has previously dismissed criticisms of the process, describing it as investors trying to "negotiate through the media". An ECB spokesperson told ESPNcricinfo: "This has been a thorough and rigorous process, with each host venue choosing its own shortlist of potential partners based on who they would like to work with, not making purely financial decisions.

"Our aims have always been to attract interest from a diverse range of parties with relevant skills and expertise to help the Hundred continue to grow, and to maximise value for the whole game. We have had a huge amount of interest and engagement from a wide range of interested parties, and we recognise that this leaves a number of disappointed parties who will not be successful."

The ECB also insisted that all remaining bidders in the process have submitted bids at each stage of the process. Several prospective investors have queried the recent emergence of a bid from a Silicon Valley tech consortium - led by Nikesh Arora and including the CEOs of Google, Microsoft and Adobe - but the board insisted there have been no late entrants since the initial first-round deadline of October 18.

Another member of a bid team told ESPNcricinfo that they have found the process "complex" and that they feel miscommunication has led to "confusion" among prospective investors. But they added: "I respect what the ECB are doing. They are trying to maximise what they can get from this. They have to do everything they can on that front."