"DHONIII FINISHES IT OFF IN STYLE" … listen carefully, it's still reverberating around the Wankhede. It's already been 12 years, and the two teams are back, in the same setting! 

Where do they stand then? Table toppers India - with six wins on the trot - are on the hunt for a seventh victory in CWC23 - which will tie their record from CWC 2015. A victory over Sri Lanka will not only see us take a timely lead in the head-to-head in 50-over ICC events (five wins each and 3 NRs in 13 matchups) but also improve our win count to 99 wins in 168 meetings.

Sri Lanka, on the other hand, fell to their fourth loss in six games at the hands of New Zealand. The Lankan Lions, however, will enter the latest INDvSL contest with one motivating factor - the visitors have won twice in three World Cup visits to India (both in 1996).

This fixture will be a special one for our captain, leader, legend and icon Rohit Sharma. RO won his maiden T20I series as captain with victory over Sri Lanka in 2017 at the Wankhede Stadium, and SL are the opponents against whom Hitman hit a century and became the first (and only) cricketer with five hundreds in a single World Cup in 2019.

What: India vs Sri Lanka, ICC Cricket World Cup 2023

When: Thursday, November 2, 2023

Where: Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai

What to expect: Rohit Sharma leading India for the first time in a World Cup game at Wankhede, Aamchi Mumbai singing Vande Mataram in unison, Mohammed Shami ascending as India’s leading World Cup wicket-taker and yet another INDvSL classic encounter.

What you need to do: Wear your Team India jerseys to paint the Wankhede in a sea of BLUE, carry our energy-boosting items to survive the Mumbai afternoon. Also remember, 2nd November is that very date when Rohit became the Hitman with his first double century against Australia, exactly 10 years ago. Now you know what to expect

India vs Sri Lanka: Numbers Talk

Squads

India: Rohit Sharma (captain), Hardik Pandya (vice-captain), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wicket-keeper), Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ishan Kishan (wicket-keeper), Suryakumar Yadav

Sri Lanka: Dasun Shanaka (captain), Kusal Mendis (vice-captain), Kusal Perera, Pathum Nissanka, Dimuth Karunaratne, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Charith Asalanka, Dhananjaya de Silva, Dushan Hemantha, Maheesh Theekshana, Dunith Wellalage, Kasun Rajitha, Matheesha Pathirana, Lahiru Kumara, Dilshan Madushanka, Dushmantha Chameera (replacement for Lahiru Kumara).