Track,record favour hosts

Pitch conditions in Rajkot is similar as India return to venue where they amassed 387 vs England last year.

The giant hoarding outside the team hotel in Rajkot shows Yuvraj Singh playing an aggressive shot. After the left-handers match-winning 65 off 25 balls in the final T20 game at Mohali,Team India will be hoping he carries his form into the five-match one-day series against Sri Lanka which begins on Tuesday.

For Rasik Makwana,who has been the curator at the ground for several decades,Yuvrajs whirlwind 138 against England last year is still fresh in his mind. And on a track where the ball comes nicely onto the bat,he says another big one from the Indian vice-captain might just be on the cards.

The team that wins the toss will bat first. The wicket will help the batsman more. Who knows,we might see Yuvraj scoring another ton, says Makwana. The fitness of the batsman,though,will be assessed only on the morning of the match,subject to his recovery from a finger injury.

The pitch conditions havent changed much since November 2008,when India,batting first,scored a colossal 387. The one thing that has changed,though,is the opposition.

As compared to the Kevin Pietersen-led England team that last played the ODI here,the visiting Sri Lankan squad seems to be significantly better when it comes to the quality and balance of the bowling department. And it is this disparity that will provide the Indian team a big challenge as they hope to get off to a blazing start in the five-match one-day series.

A year ago,nothing went right for England in the opening one-dayer of that series. They made the mistake of going with four specialist pacers and two part-time spinners and,having read too much into the early dew and the November chill,made the suicidal move of opting to bowl first.

Past mistakes

The Lankans would certainly have checked the scorecard of the last game played here and hopefully learnt from those mistakes. Once again,there is talk about the early moisture and the dropping temperature,but it is unlikely that the visitors will dare to take the unconventional decision and bowl first in case they win the toss.

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English pacers James Anderson,Stuart Broad,Andrew Flintoff and Steve Harmison couldnt adjust to the alien conditions as they failed to make an impact. Things will be different for the Sri Lankans since they have been in India for a while now and have adjusted to the conditions.

Moreover,the pitch here is very similar to the one at the Premadasa stadium and pacers like Thilan Thushara,Lasith Malinga,Dilhara Fernando and Nuwan Kulasekara should feel at home.

Better quality

There is little doubt that the quality of Sri Lankan spinners is far better than what the English had to offer Samit Patel and Pietersen. Muttiah Muralitharan will be keen to do better after his forgettable show in the Tests while Sanath Jayasuriya has the experience of bowling tight spells on slow and low tracks. It implies Mahendra Singh Dhoni amp;Co will be up against bowlers who have grown up thinking of ways to outfox batsmen on lifeless tracks. And while the Indian batting is strong enough to post a 300-plus score on Tuesday,the degree of difficulty will be slightly more this time.