Dasun Shanaka wants his team to "step up" against India after a T20 World Cup where they won only two games in the main round. They play three T20Is and as many ODIs on this tour, and India being the host country for the ODI World Cup later this year, getting familiarised with the conditions and doing well will help them in a big way.
"We didn't have a good [T20] World Cup so we need to step up," Shanaka said in Mumbai before the opening T20I. "We are looking forward to do well in this series.
"India is one of the better sides. What we need to do is to play good cricket. In the World Cup year, it is very much important, this T20 and ODI series, because most of the guys haven't played in India. It's the first chance for many of the youngsters to play in the international side so [it's a chance to learn] about situations on the ground. So this series will be very much important."
Sri Lanka had raised hopes ahead of the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia after winning the T20 Asia Cup a month prior. But they won games only against Afghanistan and Ireland in the main round, after beating Netherlands and UAE but losing to Namibia in the first round.
But that was in Australia. Shanaka pointed out that Sri Lanka would be more familiar with the conditions in India anyway, and that could help them.
"I think the conditions matter, the Asia pitches and Australia conditions are very different," he said. "Many of the superstars did not perform [well] in Australian conditions. But when it comes to Asia, we know the conditions really well. It's important how everyone starts and controls the game."
Shanaka was confident that his players would be in good touch after playing in the Lanka Premier League, which ended in December, with Jaffna Kings winning their third straight title. Some of the players in the current T20I squad in India did well in that tournament, and in the final.
Kings opener Avishka Fernando scored 50 off 43 in the final and was the leading scorer in the tournament with a tally of 339, an average of 37.66 and a strike rate of 125. Middle-order batter Sadeera Samarawickrama hammered 44 off 27 in the final, also for Kings, and scored the second-most runs - 294 from nine innings, averaging nearly 59 while striking at 131 overall.
Nuwanidu Fernando of Galle Gladiators put up 211 runs with a strike rate of 131, but will only play the ODIs, while Chamika Karunaratne, who had been dropped for the Afghanistan ODIs recently, found his groove in the LPL with seven wickets and a batting strike rate of nearly 163 for his 109 runs.
Among the bowlers, Gladiators' Nuwan Thushara shone with his 14 wickets at an economy rate of 7.44 and Kasun Rajitha picked up 13 wickets with a remarkable economy rate of 6.30.
"LPL is a good platform for the youngsters because they get international exposure, but still it's not in the standard of the IPL or Big Bash," Shanaka said. "LPL is like a platform for the international level [although] playing at international level is very much different. A few youngsters are with us, those who did well in the LPL so they're looking forward to get some experience from this tour."