SL, New Zealand kick off tri-series
COLOMBO: The triangular series gets underway in Colombo on Tuesday with a Sri Lanka-New Zealand game but the main focus during the tournament
Sangakkara and Vettori
will be on India.
Specifically, on whether MS Dhoni's men can become the top-ranked ODI team going into the Champions Trophy, which follows immediately after. India are just one point behind leaders South Africa, with 126 points, but a victory here can vault them to the No. 1 spot by a handsome margin.
The odds, though, are in favour of the Lankans, going by home advantage and current One-day form. They defeated Pakistan 3-2 just last month, wrapping up the series in the first three matches itself. A Test-series victory against the Kiwis followed but Kumar Sangakkara is cautious after the twin losses to Vettori's boys in the Twenty20 games.
"T20s and ODIs are vastly different but a loss is a loss. We were outplayed in both the T20 games but we had some time to evaluate things and have also learnt from our mistakes," said Sangakkara.
Even away from home, though, Sri Lanka have done well lately. They won the ODI series in Pakistan before the series had to be aborted because of a terror attack on the players, and before that, beat Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.
The Indians, though, will take heart from their recent record here, having notched up twin series victories. They beat Lanka in 2008 before returning in February this year to notch up another 4-1 win. The captain himself led from the front with knocks of 61 not out, 23, 35 not out, 94 and 53 in the five innings that he played.
Even though India had a very good tour of New Zealand, winning both the ODI and the Test series, the subsequent IPL took a toll and their form nosedived during the ICC World T20. The likes of Virender Sehwag and Zaheer Khan picked up injuries and cracks started to show in an otherwise well-knit unit.
India's ODI form, though, wasn't affected in the short trip to the West Indies, where they notched up a 2-1 win. A long break followed and hopefully, a rejuvenated India can live up to expectations here.
