New Zealand have won the toss and elected to field first in the first One Day International against Sri Lanka for the Dialog Cup, played in Sooriyawewa today.
The Kiwis come into this tour with a relatively inexperienced squad, and have been setback further by an injury to promising young batsman James Neesham. They are also without the services of opening batsman Hamish Rutherford.
New Zealand’s inexperienced batting lineup may have their work cut out against strong Lankan bowling attack, which includes two frontline spinners in Rangana Herath and Sachithra Senanayake, but they will first have to deal with a formidable Sri Lankan top order, with Dilshan, Sangakkara and Jayawardena all playing. Dimuth Karunaratne will be pairing with Dilshan at the top of the order today, edging out Kusal Perera after an impressive performance in the recently concluded domestic tournament.
New Zealand: Kyle Mills (capt), Tom Latham, Anton Devcich, Rob Nicol, Grant Elliott, Colin Munro, Luke Ronchi (wk), Corey Anderson, Nathan McCullum, Adam Milne and Mitchell McClenaghan
Sri Lanka : Angelo Mathews (capt), TM Dilshan, Dimuth Karunaratne, Kumar Sangakkara(wk), Mahela Jayawardena, Dinesh Chandimal, Lahiru Thirimanne Sachithra Senanayake, Nuwan Kulasekera, Rangana Herath, Lasith Malinga
