Former India captain Rahul Dravid says the islanders may not be front-runners to win the World Cup this time around, but the fact that they are a very close-knit unit gives them the edge.
Images from the second T20 International between India and Sri Lanka in Ranchi.
Boosted by their 3-0 clean sweep of Australia Down Under, a confident India would seek to continue their winning momentum when they take on a depleted and new-look Sri Lanka in the first of three T20 Internationals, in Pune, on Tuesday.
Kumar Sangakkara displayed his class with a breathtaking 84-ball 103 as Sri Lanka recovered from a middle-order batting collapse to score a thrilling two-wicket over India in the Asia Cup, at the Khan Shaheb Osman Ali Stadium, in Fatullah, Bangladesh, on Friday night. Chasing 265, the islanders rode on the 36-year-old batsman's 84-ball 103 to clinch victory with four balls to spare.
Angelo Mathews made amends for missing a century in the first innings with a gritty unbeaten 116 in the second as Sri Lanka racked up a solid lead in the opening Test against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi on Friday.
Corey Anderson scored a composed 81 as New Zealand lurched to a three-wicket victory over Sri Lanka on Sunday in the first of seven One-day Internationals between the two sides before next month's World Cup.
With ICC cracking the whip on bowlers with suspect actions, legendary Indian leg-spinner Anil Kumble has said those with illegal actions should be spotted and corrected at an early age.
High on confidence after their emphatic victory over England, the West Indies will once again look for an explosive knock from Chris Gayle to inch closer to a semi-final berth when they take on defending champions Sri Lanka in a World Twenty20 Super 10 Group 1 match in Bengaluru on Sunday.
Lost in transition, defending champions Sri Lanka will look to come out of the rut and start well against a spirited Afghanistan in their World Twenty20 Super 10 opener at Eden Gardens on Thursday. The defending champions, who were also runners-up in 2009 and 2012, have managed to win only four of their 14 matches since they beat India to win the 2014 edition in Mirpur. They are in the middle of a transition phase after Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene's exit. The build-up to the tournament was also forgettable with series defeats in New Zealand and India followed by an early ouster in Asia Cup. To add to the misery, their 2014 WT20 winning skipper Lasith Malinga has stepped down as leader of the team, following concern over his slow recovery from a knee injury. Now Test and ODI skipper Angelo Mathews' task is cutout. Having joined the squad on Tuesday, Malinga is a doubtful starter for the match. His presence in the team would impact the team a lot.
The Asia Cup to be played in Bangladesh from February 24, will be played in the T20 format for the first time in the tournament's history. The tournament which precedes the vital World T20 to be held in in India in March, has a rich history with India and Sri Lanka winning it five times each. Pakistan have been victorious on two occasions while Bangladesh's best finish has been their runner-up performance in the 2012 edition. Team India will be led by MS Dhoni and the tournament will also see Virat Kohli returning after taking a break from the recently concluded three-match T20I series against Sri Lanka. Dhoni will be chasing history to become the most successful skipper in the tournament history. The Indian skipper and former Lankan captain Arjuna Ranatunga have both recorded same number of nine victories and four defeats in the Asia Cup All the matches will be played at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium, Mirpur. The qualifying rounds involving Afghanistan, United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong and Oman has begun from Friday.
Besides preparing for the 16-team World Twenty20 2016, India and South Africa will also aim to improve their positions on the ICC T20I Team Rankings.
Pakistan batsmen Mohammad Hafeez and Ahmed Shehzad scored fluent half centuries as the first Test against Sri Lanka ended in a tame draw on the fifth day in Abu Dhabi on Saturday.
Shocked by an inexperienced Sri Lankan side on a green wicket in the first Twenty20 match, India would aim to regain its winning touch and keep the series alive.
Cricket's global governing body has justified its crackdown on bowlers with illegal actions, vowing to only allow unorthodox deliveries like the doosra within the rules.
Tillakaratne Dilshan scored his 47th one-day half century to anchor a much-improved Sri Lanka to a morale-boosting eight-wicket victory on Thursday that kept their one-day series against New Zealand alive.
Skipper Angelo Mathews held his nerve under pressure and scored an unbeaten half-century as Sri Lanka recovered from a bad start to beat Bangladesh by three wickets in the concluding league match of the Asia Cup in Mirpur on Thursday.
The Indian team's batting woes continued as they lost their opening warm-up tie of the ICC World T20 against Sri Lanka by five runs in Dhaka on Monday.
Buoyed by an overwhelming victory in the previous game, a resilient India would look to continue the momentum and seal off their second successive T20 series win when they take on Sri Lanka in the third and final Twenty20 International, in Visakhapatnam on Sunday. India shrugged off their embarrassing defeat in opening T20 match in Pune with a commanding show in Ranchi, where they outclassed the island nation by 69 runs to level the series. The Indian batsmen had struggled to cope with the 'green' track in Pune but adjusted well on a slow strip at Ranchi, where they did not put a foot wrong. The bowlers, too, were in complete control, never letting the Sri Lankan batsmen dominate. Moreover, skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni's captaincy was impressive and all his experiments, be it reshuffling of the batting order or bowling tactics, paid off. India not only mastered the conditions but also executed their plans to perfection.
It was gold rush for India on the opening day of the South Asian Games with the country's wrestlers, swimmers and weightlifters showing their regional dominance by making a near clean sweep of top honours on Saturday. India clinched 14 gold and five silver medals on a highly productive day to top the medals tally with an overall count of 19.Sri Lanka, despite having a higher overall medal count of 21, occupied the second spot in the table owing to alesser tally of gold medals (4). Wrestlers were the stars for India, grabbing as many as five gold medals followed by the swimmers who clinched four gold and three silver medals. The weightlifters added three gold medals to the tally after the cyclists had opened India's account with two gold and an equal number of silver medals in the morning. Three women and two male grapplers finished on top of the podium as the proceedings went on expected lines on the opening day of the competitions.
Sri Lanka's late order batsmen held their nerve to beat Pakistan by two wickets and level the series in a match in which fortunes swung from one side to another in Dubai.
Opener Kusal Perera stroked a fluent half-century before Sri Lanka's bowlers produced a brilliant display in the death overs to help their team pull off a thrilling five-run victory against South Africa.
England will be determined to get their act together against defending champions Sri Lanka.
Virat Kohli and Bhuvneshwar Kumar are India's highest-ranked batsman and bowler in third and 13th positions respectively.
Ahmed Shehzad smashed 95 off 90 balls as Pakistan thrashed below-par Sri Lanka by seven wickets in the fourth one-day match in Colombo on Wednesday to clinch the five-match series.
Openers Upul Tharanga and Mahela Jayawardene hit centuries to power Sri Lanka to a crushing 161-run victory against India in the third match of the tri-nation series in Jamaica, on Tuesday.
There was a lot of buzz about the Sydney Cricket Ground pitch for the high-octane India versus Australia semi-final on Thursday.
Reigning champion India will be bidding to gain further momentum and become only the third side in World Cup history to successfully defend its title after West Indies in 1975 and 1979 and Australia, who won the coveted prize three times in succession between 1999 and 2007.
Lasith Malinga's brilliant five-wicket haul under pressure and opener Lahiru Thirimanne's second ODI century helped Sri Lanka script a thrilling 12-run win over Pakistan in a nail-biting opening match of the Asia Cup at the Khan Shaheb Osman Ali Stadium, in Fatullah, on Tuesday.
Sri Lanka won the just-concluded Asia Cup, but none of their players figure in Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji's most valuable player index. Check it out.
The International Cricket Council released the provisional squads of the 12 teams for next year's World Cup in Australia and New Zealand on Friday. However, co-hosts Australia and minnows Ireland decided against releasing the provisional list although they submitted 30 names to the parent body within the stipulated deadline.
After what at one stage earlier this month looked like a vast game of musical chairs, reigning champions India ended up topping the world rankings when the five-month countdown to the 2015 World Cup started on Sunday.
As the top 10 teams prepare to battle for the World T20 crown, Rajneesh Gupta breaks down each squad's T20 performance and their showing in previous editions of the event.
Virat Kohli was unquestionably the top player, but the most valuable player index (MVPI) suggests that Shakib Al Hasan had an equally good World T20 even though his team Bangladesh fared poorly.
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