INDIA vs SRILANKA - T20 STARTS
Watch out for
Lasith Malinga: When he's bowling well, Malinga can unleash yorkers at will and his low point of release makes it extremely hard for batsmen to get under his deliveries. In the World Twenty20, he developed a slower full-toss and, while the delivery sounds rather harmless, it foxed several batsmen and left stumps flattened.
India's middle-order: The middle-order was shuffled frequently during the World Twenty20 and their performances were disappointing. Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma and Yusuf Pathan struggled against the short ball.
Team news
India have rested Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh from the Twenty20 internationals which means the bowling line-up is likely to be Ashish Nehra, Sreesanth, Ishant Sharma and Pragyan Ojha. There's is a doubt over Sreesanth, though, because the bowler has an upset stomach. If he is unfit one of the rookies - Sudeep Tyagi, R Ashwin and Ashok Dinda - could get a look in.
India (possible): 1 Gautam Gambhir, 2 Virender Sehwag, 3 Suresh Raina, 4 Yuvraj Singh, 5 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 6 Rohit Sharma, 7 Yusuf Pathan, 8 Pragyan Ojha, 9 Sreesanth, 10 Ishant Sharma, 11 Ashish Nehra.
Murali injured ligaments in a couple of fingers while training during the third Test and is likely to be rested from the Twenty20 matches.
Sri Lanka (possible): 1 Tillakaratne Dilshan, 2 Sanath Jayasuriya, 3 Kumar Sangakkara (capt & wk), 4 Mahela Jayawardene, 5 Chamara Kapugedera, 6 Angelo Mathews, 7 Kaushalya Weeraratne, 8 Nuwan Kulasekara, 9 Ajantha Mendis, 10 Lasith Malinga, 11 Chanaka Welegedara.
Pitch and conditions
There's no rain forecast in Nagpur but the difference between day and night temperatures are significant which means dew could be a factor in the evening. The pitch is the same as the one on which India scored 354 in an ODI against Australia in October so expect more runs.
"It's a late evening start. We may see dew come into effect," MS Dhoni said. "But by the time dew comes in the game may be over. It won't be that big a factor. Overall it [pitch] will be good for batting, but in Twenty20 its very tough to predict. All of a sudden you look to go aggressive and lose quite a few wickets at quick intervals and you are not able to get big runs."
Stats and Trivia
Both teams will be coming into this game on losing streaks - Sri Lanka have lost their last four (before which they had won six in a row) while India have lost their last three. Overall, Sri Lanka have a slightly better win-loss record, 14-9 in 23 games, compared to India's 9-7 in 18 matches.
India have played only once at home and once against Sri Lanka, and have won both games - they beat Australia by seven wickets at the Brabourne Stadium in 2007, and Sri Lanka by three wickets in Colombo earlier this year.
Sri Lanka have preferred batting first in Twenty20 games, winning nine and losing five. When batting second, they've won five and lost four. For India the numbers are almost the same - 5-4 when batting first, and 4-3 when chasing.
Tillakaratne Dilshan is the leading run-scorer in Twenty20 internationals among batsmen from these two teams, with Sanath Jayasuriya in second place.