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The new look Indian team is all set to play Sri Lanka in the first match of five match ODI series. After winning their tour game against Sri Lanka XI they are quite confident to repeat their performance again at Dambulla Stadium. However the pitch, condition and the Sri Lanka attack will be totally different from the one they had faced on 15th August 2008.

The one day series is interesting after sensational debut made by mystery spinner A.mendis against the top world class batsman. Now it’s interesting to watch how new look young India will tackle the “M” factors.

M.S.Dhoni has already provided a CD for his players in which closer view of A.Mendis bowling action has been taken to help the Indian batsman. Dhoni has also suggested rest of his batsman to take suggestion from Virendra Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir since both played A.Mendis with ease during recently concluded test series.

It was really interesting to see how Indian middle order tackles Mendis and Murali. Last time when India played Sri Lanka in the Asia Cup final Indian middle order where fallen like pack of cards.

Indian batsman needs to tackle Sri Lankan spinners while bowlers have to restrict the dangerous S.Jayasurya. As we have already seen recently in Asia Cup Final that when he gets going he was impossible to stop. Kumar Sangkara and M.jayawardne is also in fine form and Indian think tank has to come out with proper plan if they would like to beat Sri Lanka in their backyard.

The pitch at Dambula Stadium is very slow and is likely to help the spin department from both sides. The average score at this venue is around 200 runs per inning.

Sri Lanka is most likely to go into the match with two world class spinner A.Mendis and M.Muralitharan and with two pace bowlers C.Vaas and N.Kulasekara. While India is likely to go into the match with three pacers and one spinner.

India Squad: Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, S.Raina, R.Sharma, Yuvraj Singh, M.S.Dhoni (Captain), V.kohli, I.Pathan, H.Singh, Z.Khan, R.P.Singh.

Sri Lanka Squad: S.Jayasurya, M. Warnapura, Kumar Sangakkara (WK), M.Jayawardne (Captain), Tillekaratne Dilshan, Chamara Silva, C.Kapugedra, C. Vaas, Nuwan Kalusekara, Muthiah Muralitharan, Ajantha Mendis.