Sri Lanka won the toss and decided to have a bowl on a lightly-grassed pitch in Rajkot. Without the flu-stricken Lasith Malinga and with Muttiah Muralitharan not deemed fit enough, it was a gamble of sorts, especially against an Indian side strengthened by the return of Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh, who were rested for the two Twenty20 games.
There was also a recall for Praveen Kumar, who played no part in the Twenty20 games. Sri Lanka also tinkered with their batting line-up, opting to open with Upul Tharanga and leaving Sanath Jayasuriya to bat in middle order, where he first started nearly 20 years ago.
Yuvraj Singh missed out with a finger injury sustained in the last Twenty20 game, and there was an opportunity for Virat Kohli to press his claims. The onus though was clearly on India's top order to combat the early movement and prevent the sort of batting debacle that cost them the recent series against Australia in Guwahati.
India had a formidable recent record against Sri Lanka in recent times, but with a 9am start, Chanaka Welegedara, Nuwan Kulasekara and Dilhara Fernando had a chance to even the scores.
India: 1 Virender Sehwag, 2 Sachin Tendulkar, 3 Gautam Gambhir, 4 Virat Kohli, 5 Suresh Raina, 6 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 Harbhajan Singh, 9 Praveen Kumar, 10 Zaheer Khan, 11 Ashish Nehra.
Sri Lanka: 1 Kumar Sangakkara (capt & wk), 2 Upul Tharanga, 3 Tillakaratne Dilshan, 4 Mahela Jayawardene, 5 Thilan Samaraweera, 6 Thilina Kandamby, 7 Sanath Jayasuriya, 8 Angelo Mathews, 9 Nuwan Kulasekara, 10 Dilhara Fernando, 11Chanaka Welegedara.
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