Jayawardene expects backlash

Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene is ready for India to fight back tomorrow

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Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene has warned of a backlash from India in the second one-day international at the Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium on Wednesday.

Spin duo Ajantha Mendis and Muttiah Muralitharan claimed three wickets apiece and Jayawardene made an unbeaten 61 as Sri Lanka registered an eight-wicket win over Mahendra Singh Dhoni's side in Monday’s opening one-dayer.

The victory came after the hosts wrapped up a 2-1 win in the preceding three-Test series, but Jayawardene insists India have the quality in their ranks to make a fight of the best-of-five one-day series.

"I do expect India to come back pretty hard at us," Jayawardene said. "They have a very good side and there are a lot of talented individuals in the Indian team who can single-handedly change the course of a match.

"They will definitely come back strongly and we need to make sure we play the same brand of cricket that we played in the first match.

"I'm happy with the way we performed in the first match. The bowlers hit the right areas consistently and, when we batted, we saw off the new ball without much damage."

A fresh track has been marked out for Wednesday's game but Jayawardene expects some seam and bounce in the early hours of the contest.

"There is always a bit of bounce in the early overs,” he continued.

“There is also a bit of dew for the first eight overs or so and there usually is some seam movement with the new ball.”

Virender Sehwag, who was ruled out of the series through an ankle injury, prepares to leave Dambulla

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Dhoni, meanwhile, has a selection problem to resolve after opening batsman Virender Sehwag was ruled out of the remainder of the series with an ankle injury.

Sehwag returned home to Delhi on Tuesday and the Board of Control for Cricket in India confirmed no replacement would be sent.

"We had picked 16 players for this tournament and with Sehwag's return there are still 15 players," said BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah. "We will not be flying out a replacement for Sehwag."

Virat Kohli, Parthiv Patel and Subramaniam Badrinath are vying for the vacant opener’s berth alongside Gautam Gambhir.

India are also thought to be considering a reshuffle further down their batting order after losing seven wickets for less than 100 runs in the opening match.

"In the first match we were always chasing the game after we lost early wickets," said Dhoni. "That's always the case when you lose too many wickets at start in an ODI game.”

Dhoni has also called on his batsmen to finally get to grips with the potent threat of up and coming spin king Mendis.

"He is a bit of an unusual bowler," Dhoni said of the 23-year-old.

“By the time you pick his delivery it is too late to play a big shot. You can't keep defending him in ODIs.

"Everyone had the same problem with Murali when he first came into cricket, but in time they sorted him out."