Get all of the latest information and watch every ball right here – live!
Where: Bangladesh
When: 13.00 (GMT)
Click here to watch on Star Sports (Asia)!
Sri Lankan coach Paul Farbrace beleives his side’s familiarity with conditions in Bangladesh will give them an added boost against India today and for the rest of the Twenty20 World Cup.
After winning in all three formats of the game against the hosts and then picking up the Asia Cup trophy against their rivals today, Farbrace says he thinks his side is in a good position to win.
The advantage we have is we play our four group matches in Chittagong, where we played our two T20 matches against Bangladesh,” Farbrace said.
“We know the conditions and we got good balance in our squad, that’s a great thing. We give ourselves a good chance if we are focussed and we practice properly.
“The key is we don’t get too overly carried away by the success we had on that Bangladesh tour. When we get back to Bangladesh we just need to make sure we are switched on and we are ready.
“We would have to say that we are one of the teams going there thinking that we have got a good chance of doing well in the competition. The belief within the squad is such that we can win games from any position.”
India captain MS Dhoni was confident that the experience gained by the players in the IPL was sufficient for them to compete as a unit, despite only playing five T20 internationals since the last World Cup.
“Most of the teams, if you see, don’t play a lot of T20s,” Dhoni said in Dhaka in his first press conference ahead of the tournament. “Especially with the kind of schedule we have, I don’t think we’ll be able to accommodate more than one or two T20s [per series]. That is something that I will always face.
“At the same time, we have got the IPL where we have played with the best players and the standard there is as high as international standards so that really amounts to the experience we need.”
Since winning the inaugural World T20 in 2007, India have failed to make the semi-finals in each of the next three editions. In 2012, despite losing just one out their five games, India failed to make the final four because they fell short on the net run rate.
Dhoni said their experience was an example of how no team can afford to lose even a single game, for it could affect their chances of qualifying. India are placed in a tough group, with Pakistan, Australia and West Indies.
“Our group is quite a competitive one so all the matches will be important,” Dhoni said. “Especially when you consider our performance in the last edition of the World T20 where we exited from the tournament after losing just one game. We have a couple of warm-up games before our first game so we’ll be looking towards using those warm-ups to sort out our team’s balance.”
COMMENTS