West Indies tri-series 2013: WI vs Sri Lanka - Players to watch out for

Hosts West Indies take on Sri Lanka in the opening game of the tri-series, which involves India too

West Indies and Sri Lanka will kick off the triangular tournament today at Sabina Park. The match will be an excellent opportunity for the two teams to make a head-start in the competition as the fixtures against Champions Trophy winners India are unlikely to be easy. India are favorites to make the final in spite of being in unfamiliar West Indian conditions, given their form and strength on paper. In such a situation, West Indies would want to exploit the conditions when Sri Lanka are least acclimatized.

West Indies bowed out of the Champions Trophy because of a rain-interrupted match against South Africa which was a little unfortunate. West Indies’ coach Ottis Gibson gave a statement of intent ahead of this series.

Talking about the clash against Sri Lanka, he said, “It’s to put those little mistakes that we made in England away. We felt we had a good opportunity to win that tournament and we want to win this one and prove ourselves right.” West Indies named a 13 man squad for the series with only two major changes to the squad that traveled to the Champions trophy. Ramnaresh Sarwan was excluded after a dismal outing and Jason Holder was left out too after not getting a single game in the Champions Trophy.

Sri Lanka, on the other hand, had a bittersweet campaign. They fought hard to get to the semifinals but bowed out to eventual champions India there. Under the leadership of Angelo Matthews, Sri Lanka are making a rare visit to the Caribbean. They will have high hopes for themselves and will be especially concerned about the performance of the new talent that they have in their squad.

Here is a list of five players who can make a significant contribution to the result of the opening match:

5. Upul Tharanga

Upul Tharanga

The left-handed batsman makes a return to the side due to the absence of Tillakaratne Dilshan. Dilshan suffered a calf-injury in the semifinal match of the Champions Trophy against India and is now nursing the injury. Tharanga is on the verge of a personal milestone as another 46 runs will mean that he joins an elite club of Sri Lankan players who have 5,000 runs to their name. He will be opening the batting with Kusal Perera and a good start upfront will set up the match for Sri Lanka with the experience of Jayawardene and Sangakkara to follow.