Asia Cup Preview: India Vs. Sri Lanka

India will go through their first meaningful contest of this year's Asia cup when they take on Sri Lanka. Team India finally ended their eight match winless streak when they defeated Bangladesh in their opening match of the event. They will like to build onto the momentum which they got from their latest win. On the other hand, Sri Lanka was able to beat Pakistan by 12 runs in their first match of the tournament. The responsibility of scoring will once again be on the Indian captain Virat Kohli, who is in tremendous touch at the moment. He was at his best against the host nation, notching up his 19th ODI ton. He was assisted by Ajinkya Rahane, who finally played well, scoring a well deserved half century. Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan, the two openers, are struggling for runs in this format and will have to make decent contribution in the second match. Any error against the Lankans could make things difficult for the Indian team. I will like to see Cheteshwar Pujara and Stuart Binny in place of Ambati Rayudu and Varun Aaron in the upcoming encounter. Pujara is the one who can play much required inning in the middle order while Stuart Binny could give Virat Kohli a cover in the batting as well as bowling department.
The rival team Sri Lanka won their first match because of Lasith Malinga, who dismantled Pakistan's batting lineup with a match haul of five wickets. Lankan batting will have the influence of Kumar Sangakkara who is in the middle of a dream run. Mahela Jayawardene, Thisara Perera and Angelo Mathews are the other experience players in the team, who can win matches of their own.
Verdict
Team India have a better chance of winning this one. The current world champion side have always played well against the rainbow nation and could once again do the same.
Squads India: Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Ambati Rayudu, Dinesh Karthik (wicketkeeper), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, Mohammad Shami, Varun Aaron, Cheteshwar Pujara, Stuart Binny, Amit Mishra and Ishwar Pandey. Sri
Lanka: Angelo Mathews (captain), Kusal Perera, Lahiru Thirimanne, Kumar Sangakkara (wicketkeeper), Mahela Jayawardene, Thisara Perera, Chaturanga de Silva, Dinesh Chandimal, Sachithra Senanayake, Lasith Malinga, Suranga Lakmal, Ajantha Mendis, Ashan Priyanjan and Dhammika Prasad.

Note-India will go through their first meaningful contest of this year's Asia cup when they take on Sri Lanka. Team India finally ended their eight match winless streak when they defeated Bangladesh in their opening match of the event.