Match Preview - India vs Sri Lanka, Asia Cup 2012

Ragul

It was just a few days ago that India met Sri Lanka at Hobart for a back-door-oppurtunity match to reach the finals. Kohli’s heroics and Raina’s cameo helped India register one of its famous wins in Australia. Despite that, they couldn’t reach the finals courtesy a good show by Sri Lankans against Australia in the next match. The World Cup finalists are now all set to meet each other again at Mirpur in the Asia Cup league encounter on Tuesday. India’s devastating Australia tour has finally come to an end and they are back playing on familiar sub-continent pitches, contesting against 3 talented teams to defend their championship. The Sri Lankans had a decent Australian tour. However, a last minute hiccup costed them the CB Series Trophy. Jayawardene and his boys will be keen to give it back to Indians for their Hobart humiliation.

Both the teams have rested a couple of their premium players. Sri Lanka have dropped Rangana Herath and Dhammika Prasad from their squad and have replaced them with Seekkuge Prassanna and Suranga Lakmal. On the other hand, the Indians have rested Virender Sehwag, Parthiv Patel, Umesh Yadav and Zaheer Khan and brought Yusuf Pathan and Ashok Dinda into the squad. Both the teams will be entering with a spin-heavy attack unlike in Australia where they were compelled to go against their strengths by playing a pace-heavy attack.

Bangladesh have hosted two earlier editions of Asia Cup in which India have faced Sri Lankans 6 times, losing 4 times and winning just twice. The stats do not favor India but their fans would like to believe that everything in this world is bound to change at some point of time.

India vs Sri Lanka at Dhaka
Indialost17 runswon2ndv Sri LankaDhaka29 Oct 1988
Indiawon6 wickets47won2ndv Sri LankaDhaka4 Nov 1988
Indialost71 runslost2ndv Sri LankaDhaka1 Jun 2000
Indialost5 wickets12lost1stv Sri LankaDhaka5 Jan 2010
Indiawon8 wickets104lost2ndv Sri LankaDhaka10 Jan 2010
Indialost4 wickets9lost1stv Sri LankaDhaka13 Jan 2010

Match Details:Venue: Sher-e-bangla Stadium, MirpurTiming: 1330 IST on 13 March 2012Channels Telecasting: DD National, Neo Cricket

Previous Meeting:India v Sri Lanka at Hobart, CB Series 2012.SL 320/4 (50) | Ind 321/3 (3.4) | India won by 7 wickets with 80 balls remaining.

Probable Playing XI:India:1. Sachin Tendulkar, 2. Gautham Gambhir, 3.Virat kohli, 4. Rohit Sharma, 5. Suresh Raina, 6. MS Dhoni (C & Wk), 7. Ravindra Jadeja/Yusuf Pathan, 8.R Ashwin 9. Irfan Pathan, 10. Praveen Kumar, 11.Vinay Kumar

Sri Lanka:1. Mahela Jayawardene(c), 2.Tilakrathne Dilshan, 3. Kumar Sangakara, 4. Dinesh Chandimal, 5. Angelo Mathews, 6.Lahiru Thirimane/Upul Tharanga, 7.Thisara Perera, 8. Farvez Maharoof, 9.Nuwan Kulasekara, 10.Sachithra Senanayake, 11. Lasith Malinga.

Players to Watch out for:Virat Kohli: He has been in the limelight ever since his successful Australian tour and has been rewarded with the vice-captaincy. Now it is up to him to come out and prove that he is worth all the attention.Dinesh Chandimal: Despite being a wicket-keeper, he is good at ground fielding too. He was at his personal best in Australia. Chandimal will want to extend his good patch and score as many runs as possible which would give him a fair chance to be in the playing XI for a longer period of time.

Brand-new app in a brand-new avatar! Download Cric Rocket for fast cricket scores, rocket flicks, super notifications and much more!

Edited by Staff Editor