Sri Lankan coach Trevor Bayliss was busy shunting from net to net on Monday morning before settling to work with Tillakaratne Dilshan, adjusting his body position while playing the expansive over-the-infield shots. Shift the frame to Team India in the afternoon, when Virender Sehwag was on autopilot as he effortlessly whacked the white ball while Gary Kirsten stood behind and applauded.

It was a contrasting picture of simmering doubts and oozing confidence between the two teams, but in a series where the new-ball needs urgent and aggressive tackling, a surprise can never be too far away. Burdened with frequent-flier miles in the past month, a jaded Sri Lanka took the intense-practice option on Monday while Team India had an optional session which even Mahendra Singh Dhoni decided to skip ahead of the third one-day international.

Dhoni, already hailed for his tactics as skipper, awaits a statistical approval on Tuesday to join the ranks of Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev and Sourav Ganguly for an eighth win in a row, a victory that would also give his side back-to-back series wins against Sri Lanka.

Going into the match, his team have its share of niggles — Yuvraj Singh was a latest addition on the list after getting a rap on the fingers while fending a short-pitched delivery from Ishant Sharma — but there aren’t any serious injury worries after Laxmipathy Balaji, hopping from Rajkot to Chennai, reached Colombo late in the evening in a direct swap for Munaf Patel.

Given the circumstances, Irfan Pathan would’ve been the ideal choice for a third seamer, but Praveen Kumar’s brilliance in swinging the new ball makes dropping him a difficult bargain. Even though Dhoni has several options in the middle overs, it’s been difficult to get breakthroughs, and unless the seamers provide early wickets the pressure can be difficult to handle with the batting powerplay a perpetual threat in the late overs.

... contd.