Nidahas Trophy 2018: 'Men in Blue' start favorites against Sri Lanka in Tri-Nation T20 series opener

Team India which is on a high after winning the T20 series against South Africa shall go in as favorites when they take on Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in the Nidahas Trophy triangular T20 series starting from Tuesday. 

The opening game shall be played out between hosts Sri Lanka and India. The tournament opener shall commence at 7:30 pm at Colombo.

India outplayed the Sri Lankans in bilateral rubbers in recent times. "If you go by the rankings, India is the top team in the tournament, so they always start ahead of the other teams," Hathurusingha said on the eve of the tournament.

He added, "Whoever plays for India, it is still a very strong team. We have to start well because we haven't been doing well at home. With Bangladesh, because of the last series, we probably have a little edge over them mentally."

Although Sri Lanka has recently shown improvement in Bangladesh, their record against India is woeful. India has won the seven most-recent T20s between these sides, and are ranked third in the world, while Sri Lanka are eighth.

Kohli and Mahendra Singh Dhoni have been rested from the Nidahas Trophy. Rohit Sharma was named stand-in captain of India's 15-man squad, with Shikhar Dhawan his deputy. India also rested several other limited-overs regulars in fast bowlers Bhuvneshwar and Jasprit Bumrah, wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav and allrounder Hardik Pandya.