Can Sri Lanka rebound from a demoralising 2-0 Test series loss to India and make amends in the Twenty20 series? Many would argue no however the Lankans are masters of the shortest form of cricket.
The same could be said about India, which the cricket lines clearly show as favourites at –150, but Sri Lanka are truly revolutionary when it comes to T20.
Both teams are currently on lengthy losing streaks, India has lost their past three while Sri Lanka has lost their past four which means both teams will go into this match with pride on the line. The Nagpur pitch should offer the team batting first very little in the way of a challenge so the toss will be important.
Sri Lanka look to be better equipped to chase down a big total and considering they have the likes of Lasith Malinga and Chanaka Welegedara to call on with the ball, if I were captain Kumar Sangakkara, I would send India to bat and put the pressure on their glittering batsmen.
If Malinga and Welegedara can skittle Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag and Suresh Raina and put the middle order of Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma under pressure, their own batsmen should easily account for whatever total India put together.
The likes of Tillakaratne Dilshan, Sanath Jayasuriya, Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene are seasoned pros at T20 and realistically bat down to seven or eight with Chamara Kapugedera, Angelo Mathews, Kaushalya Weeraratne and Nuwan Kulasekara all able to wield the willow.
Malinga is no slouch and give the ball a healthy tap.
Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh are being rested for this end of the series which also plays into the hands of Sri Lanka so despite what the bookmakers are saying, don’t discount Sri Lanka from the betting equation.
Whatever happens though expect plenty of runs – Dilshan and Jayasuria are numbers one and two on the list of most prolific T20 international run scorers having accumulated 572 and 549 respectively from 21 matches a piece.
Numbers four and five on that list are also Sri Lankans – Sangakkara and Jayawardene with 435 and 420 runs respectively.
Sandwiched in there at number three is Gambhir with 476 runs.