India vs. Sri Lanka 1st ODI: Date, Live Stream, TV Info, Preview

India and Sri Lanka begin their five-match ODI series in Cuttack on Sunday, and the home side are favourites to clinch the first match.

Venue: Barabati Stadium, Cuttack

Date: Sunday, 2 November

Start Time: 1:30 p.m. local (8 a.m. GMT)

Live On: Star Sports (India), CSN Network (Sri Lanka), Orbit Show Network (Middle East), Ten Sports (Caribbean), Sky Sports (New Zealand), Geo Super and PTV Sports (Pakistan), SuperSport (South Africa), Sky Sports (United Kingdom), Willow TV (USA), Fox Sports (Australia).

Weather:  AccuWeather.com forecasts a sunny and clear day, with no chance of rain interrupting play at any point. It'll be hot, with temperatures of up to 32 degrees Celsius. 

Overview

After the West Indies pulled out of their tour to India, Sri Lanka moved quickly to plug the gap. Sri Lanka are at a big disadvantage, having not played any cricket since August, and if the warm-up match is anything to go by, it's going to be a tough tour.

Sri Lanka lost their warm-up fixture against India A by 88 runs, with only Upul Tharanga managing a score of significance. He notched up 76, the only player in the team to score a half century.

Rohit Sharma returned from injury for India and hit 142 off just 111 balls, while Manish Pandey smashed an unbeaten 135 off 113. As Sri Lanka begin to shake off the rust, though, the contest should intensify, but for the first game, India are very much the favourites.

For this series, context is also important. It is being played mostly on the premise of its financial significance. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) needs to try and make up some of the losses they incurred following West Indies' withdrawal, but thanks to the looming World Cup, it will at least have some semblance of cricketing importance.

For both teams, it's the chance to test some of the fringe players, and for India, Virat Kohli's leadership skills will get a workout as he takes over captaincy duties.

All eyes will be on the likes of Akshar Patel, Umesh Yadav and Varun Aaron as they get to test their skills against big-name players like Kumar Sangakkara, Angelo Mathews and Mahela Jayawardene.

Key players

India

Virat Kohli hit a century in his last game out and is definitely one of the players in form. With the added captaincy responsibility, he will be tested and will need to set an example for the rest of the team. 

Sri Lanka

Angelo Mathews has been a star for Sri Lanka in recent times and is having a solid year in one-day cricket. He already has more than 700 runs this year at an average of 60.25. He'll be looking for more of the same against India's inexperienced attack.

Squads

India: Virat Kohli (c), Murali Vijay, Varun Aaron, Akshar Patel, Shikhar Dhawan, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammad Shami, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, Amit Mishra.

Sri Lanka: Angelo Mathews (c), Kusal Perera, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Upul Tharanga, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, Ashan Priyanjan, Niroshan Dickwella (wk), Thisara Perera, Nuwan Kulasekara, Dhammika Prasad, Lahiru Gamage, Chaturanga de Silva, Seekkuge Prasanna, Suraj Randiv.