Young Sri Lanka face a Surging India in the T20I Series Opener

India Vs Sri Lanka, 1st T20I at Pune - Match Preview

It's that time of the year again, the two teams in blue will again battle it out on the cricket field this time in the shortest format of the game as Sri Lanka will take on India in the 1st of the 3 T20I matches and it will be an ideal preparation for both the teams in view of the upcoming WT20 to be played in India.

Sri Lanka were the team that demolished India in the ICC WT20 Final in 2014, winning the crown for the first time and India will be looking to make amends for the mistakes they made on that balmy night. India recently climbed to the top of the ICC Rankings in the T20 format, a position that the Sri Lankan team had made their own since the past 2 years.

Sri Lanka have lost the last two T20I matches that they played in New Zealand and they will also be without the services of their regular captain and best death bowler in Lasith Malinga for this series. Angelo Mathews, Rangana Herath and Dilshan will all be missing in action from the 1st T20I as well due to injuries. Kusal Perera, banned for doping, will be replaced by Danushka Gunathilaka a 24 year old left hand batsmen who played some impact innings in New Zealand. He made a rapid 50 off just 28 balls in one of the ODI's to win them a game against a rampaging Kiwi team while also made a peppy 46 off 29 balls in a T20I. Dinesh Chandimal is the captain who looks lost in this format despite being a very good batsman in the ODI and test match formats.

Milinda Siriwardena is a very good bat lower down the order for them, capable of big hits while also having an unflappable temperament. Chamara Kapugedera is also there and he will be looking to make an impression after failing in the recent series. Who will make the rest of their line up still remains to be seen but there are a few exciting young players in their squad like Dasun Shanaka, the big hitting batsman.

India on the other hand, have already named their 15 for the WT20 and have a settled line up. Virat Kohli is rested but still the rest of the batting line up oozes class and there are several impact players and match winners like Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni and Dhawan.

Ajinkya Rahane makes a comeback after missing the Australia T20's due to an injury and there is also Manish Pandey who slammed his maiden ODI ton in Sydney to win India an ODI. Yuvraj Singh will be looking forward to this tie as well after that disastrous innings he played in the 2014 WT20 Final.

On the bowling front, R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja will be hoping to continue their good form and I am especially excited to see how the youngster Bumrah performs on the Indian pitches. The Sri Lankan bowling, once their strong-hold, is looking thread-bare in the absence of Malinga, Kulasekera and Herath but there are plenty new faces like Kasun Rajitha, Vandersay and Dushmantha Chameera to look forward to.

It is going to be an exciting series but I think that India are just way too powerful at the moment and it will be a very difficult task for the Lankans to defeat an in-form Indian team in India.

This blog post is inspired by the blogging marathon hosted on IndiBlogger for the launch of the #Fantastico Zica from Tata Motors. You can apply for a test drive of the hatchback Zica today.