Cricket

India win toss & bat; make shaky start

India won the toss against Sri Lanka in the first ODI at Dambulla and elected to bat first. The major change for India was the absence of Virender Sehwag as he hurt his ankle in the nets on Sunday and is thus missing the game. In his place Virat Kohli made his ODI debut for India.

Scorecard

But the high of a new player soon reduced to nothing as India came to face the enormity of the task at hand. Gambhir was out early as Chaminda Vaas took his 399th ODI victim and then Kulasekara removed Kohli as India were reduced to 29 for 2 in 10 overs. Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina were at the crease trying to etch out a partnership.

For the Lankans, Sanath Jayasuriya returned to the team and they played the same eleven that won the Asia Cup last month.

Squads:

Sri Lanka: Sanath Jayasuriya, Kumar Sangakkara (wk), Mahela Jayawardene (capt), Chamara Kapugedera, Chamara Silva, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Chaminda Vaas, Nuwan Kulasekara, Thilan Thushara, Ajantha Mendis, Muttiah Muralitharan.

India: Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt & wk), Rohit Sharma, Irfan Pathan, Pragyan Ojha, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel.

Tags: Chaminda Vaas, gautam gambhir, Idea Cup 2008, India, kulasekera, ODI series, sanath jayasuriya, sri lanka, virat kohli, virender sehwag