India take on Sri Lanka in the 2nd match of the tournament, a clash of two teams who underperformed during the 1992 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
India had a tough year with Away tours to Australia and South Africa, and though some individual performances were encouraging, overall they struggled in largely foreign conditions..
Sri Lanka on the other hand were on the rise and after beginning the year with a close loss to Pakistan, ended it with good performances at Home against Australia and New Zealand.
India usually come to the party in Home conditions, so this match may be a tough one for the Sri Lankans.
Both teams start this match with seam heavy bowling lineups, a legacy of the pitches and selection policies during the matches at the beginning of the year in 1992.
India have arguably their strongest pace attack in history, with alltime great wicket taker Kapil Dev partnering young challenger Javagal Srinath, with the reliable Manoj Prabhakar in support.
For this match, India even go a step further, adding seamer Subroto Banerjee to the lineup to make his debut (as per the Sydney Test in real life), to complete a lineup containing 4 specialist seamers, with only allrounder Ravi Shastri to offer spin support.
Fortuitously for both teams, prevailing conditions in this match are neither here nor there, mostly favouring the bat, with the Overcast conditions on Day offering help to the Swing bowlers, therefore possibly justifying the seam friendly lineups.
India lineup:
R.J.Shastri, N.S.Sidhu, S.V.Manjrekar, D.B.Vengsarkar, M.Azharuddin (c), S.R.Tendulkar, M.Prabhakar, Kapil Dev, C.S.Pandit (wk), S.T.Banerjee, J.Srinath
Sri Lanka lineup:
R.S.Mahanama, U.C.Hathurasinghe, A.P.Gurusinha, P.A.de Silva (c), A.Ranatunga, S.T.Jayasuriya, H.P.Tillekeratne (wk), R.J.Ratnayake, S.D.Anurasiri, K.I.W.Wijegunawardena, G.P.Wickremasinghe
Pitch: 80
Day 1 Conditions:
Pitch: 5A - Dry and Dusty
Weather: 1 - Hot and Humid (Overcast)
Toss: Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka won the toss, and with batting conditions good apart from the Overcast conditions on the opening day, elected to bat first.
With their lineup more balanced than India's, the promised offer of assistance to the spinners late in the match proved tempting.
Wary of India's strong seam attack, and with conditions only likely to get better for batting on the 2nd Day, Sri Lanka would have been tempted to let their own seamers loose on the first morning, but conventional wisdom says batting first is generally the way to win in India.
Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai, plays host to the 2nd match of the 1992 World Test Championship, between India and Sri Lanka.
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