Match facts
Saturday, July 21Start time 1430 (0900 GMT)
Big Picture
Yet another India v Sri Lanka series is upon us. While the Indian team
has racked up its frequent flyer miles with regular trips to Sri Lanka
over the past few years, they start this series in an unfamiliar
location. The stadium at Hambantota, a port town in southern Sri Lanka,
was built for the World Cup and India haven't played a game there yet.
The ground recently hosted a couple of Twenty20s during Pakistan's tour
and, if those matches are anything to go by, the bowlers should enjoy
themselves. With Zaheer Khan back spearheading the attack, and Umesh
Yadav providing the pace, India's bowling looks in better shape than it
did in their previous ODI series, the Asia Cup in Dhaka.
One advantage India will have over the home side is that the team comes
in with six weeks of rest, a rare luxury in recent years. On the other
hand Sri Lanka, especially their IPL players, have been playing almost
non-stop since their previous home season began last August. With the
SLPL starting days after this series ends, and the World Twenty20
following soon after, Sri Lanka's players have a while to go yet before
they can think of a rest.
Form guide
Sri Lanka WWWLL (Completed games, most recent first)
India WLWWL
Watch out for...
In the 15 months since last year's World Cup, Virender Sehwag has
played only nine ODIs due to a combination of injuries, the
controversial rotation system and being rested. In those matches, he
blasted the record-breaking 219 in Indore, but hasn't otherwise crossed
30.
Sri Lanka's batting order has undergone plenty of changes over
the past few months. Will they again push Jayawardene to the top of the
order or stick with Upul Tharanga, who had a poor series against
Pakistan? And if Jayawardene takes a middle-order place, will it be his
usual position at No. 4, or will he go one spot lower as he did against
Pakistan?
Team news
One of the questions India will have to address is whether to play Irfan
Pathan as an allrounder at No. 7, or go in with a specialist batsman at
that position. If they do pick a specialist batsman for that position,
it will likely be Manoj Tiwary, who has spent plenty of time on the
bench over the past few months. Dhoni hinted that they will pick Irfan
for the first game. "He gives us the liberty of playing with five
specialist bowlers," he said. "We can play two spinners and three
seamers because Irfan can also bat."
India: (probable) 1 Virender Sehwag, 2 Gautam Gambhir, 3 Virat
Kohli, 4 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 5 Rohit Sharma, 6 Suresh Raina, 7
Irfan Pathan, 8 R Ashwin, 9 Zaheer Khan, 10 Umesh Yadav, 11 Pragyan Ojha
Sri Lanka have experimented with a whole lot of spinners over the past
couple of years, but are still to zero in on a permanent slow bowler for
their limited-overs side. The squad for this series includes Jeevan
Mendis, who impressed with bat and ball in the one match he got against
Pakistan, and Rangana Herath, who has cemented his place as lead spinner
in the Test side but isn't yet as secure in the shorter forms.
Sri Lanka: (probable) 1 Tillakaratne Dilshan, 2 Upul Tharanga, 3
Kumar Sangakkara (wk), 4 Dinesh Chandimal, 5 Mahela Jayawardene (capt),
6 Lahiru Thirimanne, 7 Angelo Mathews, 8 Thisara Perera, 9 Nuwan
Kulasekara, 10 Lasith Malinga, 11 Rangana Herath
Stats and trivia
- Upul Tharanga averages 37.12 against all teams in ODIs since the start of 2010, but only makes 11.76 an innings against India in that period.
- Lasith Malinga leads the ODI wicket-chart for 2012, with 36 scalps.
- Virat Kohli's ODI average of 50.56 puts him fifth in the all-time list
Quotes
"We have had the match practice and the guys are in pretty good form, we
will try and continue that. For the Indians, it's a different story,
they have to get back to a rhythm. On the other hand, they are fresher
than us after us going through six months of continuous cricket."Mahela Jayawardene think a break from cricket isn't necessarily a blessing
"[Managing Zaheer's workload] is important but I don't think we need to think about it from the very first game. We need to also get him match-fit."
MS Dhoni is aware India's injury-prone pace leader needs to be used wISELY
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