The Nidahas Tri-series 2018 T20I tournament goes underway with India and Sri Lanka playing the first match of the series. Bangladesh will be the third team in the tri-series. All the matches will be played at the R Premadasa stadium in Sri Lanka.

India and Sri Lanka will renew their rivalry which we saw in 2017. India dominated their neighbors in all the three formats at their home and when they visited India, India won in all the formats. Now India will be without majority of their first choice players including the likes of MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Hardik Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

India have opted to give them rest keeping the upcoming IPL in mind. Rohit Sharma will lead the team, with Shikhar Dhawan as his deputy. Youngsters like Deepak Hooda, Washington Sundar, Mohd Siraj and Vijay Shankar have been included in the squad; with Shardul Thakur and Jaydev Unadkat rewarded for their performances in South Africa.

Sri Lanka on the other hand is forced to give chances to new players thanks to injuries to bigwigs like Angelo Mathews and Asela Gunaratne. They will be depending on Kusal Mendis, Thisara Perera and Dasun Shanaka along with captain Dinesh Chandimal to take on a lightweight Indian team.

Toss: Sri Lanka won the toss and opted to field.

Playing XIs:

India: Rohit Sharma(c), Shikhar Dhawan, Suresh Raina, Manish Pandey, Dinesh Karthik(w), Rishabh Pant, Washington Sundar, Vijay Shankar, Shardul Thakur, Jaydev Unadkat, Yuzvendra Chahal

Sri Lanka: Upul Tharanga, Danushka Gunathilaka, Kusal Mendis, Dinesh Chandimal(w/c), Kusal Perera, Dasun Shanaka, Thisara Perera, Jeevan Mendis, Akila Dananjaya, Dushmantha Chameera, Nuwan Pradee