Advantage Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka have by far the best recent record in the Asia Cup, winning three of the last four tournaments, including the last two in 2004 and 2008. They also come into the tournament fresh from a victory in the triangular series in Zimbabwe. India have won four times too, but the most recent of those wins came in 1995.

The table below summarises the overall tournament performance of the four participating teams. Sri Lanka have won 12 of their 16 games in the Asia Cup since the start of the decade, followed by Pakistan who have won 11 of their 14 games. India, on the other hand, have been ordinary, winning eight and losing seven of the 15 matches played.

Traditionally, Sri Lanka have been a tough side to beat in their own backyard, but over the last five years India have had a fair degree of success there. Since the beginning of 2005, India have a 11-7 win-loss record in Sri Lanka, which is better than the home team's 20-16 ratio. Sri Lanka, though, won the last time the tournament was hosted in their home country, in 2004.

Despite an ordinary showing in the triangular series in Zimbabwe, India have been the best subcontinent team in one-day internationals since January 2008. Pakistan have played just 46 matches, which is the lowest among subcontinent teams, but have a good win-loss record.

In the absence of Sanath Jayasuriya, Sri Lanka go into the Asia Cup without the top run-getter in the tournament. Jayasuriya is the only one to score more than 1000 runs in this competition, and also has the most hundreds (six). India will miss Sachin Tendulkar, who is the second-highest with 799. Unlike Jayasuriya, though, Tendulkar has struggled to score hundreds in the tournament, getting only one century despite making it past 50 seven times.

Pakistan will be boosted by the return of Shoaib Malik, who has been an extremely consistent performer in the Asia Cup, scoring 528 runs at an average of more than 75. Muttiah Muralitharan's return to the squad will be a huge plus for Sri Lanka considering he has been the leading wicket-taker in the tournament. They will miss Ajantha Mendis, though, who was in terrific form in the previous edition of the Asia Cup.

All the matches are going to be played under lights at the Rangiri Stadium in Dambulla. This venue has been the toughest to score in among all venues in Sri Lanka. The table below summarises the batting stats at the three major venues in Sri Lanka. The number of runs scored in boundaries per match is the lowest in Dambulla, thanks to the big ground and relatively slow outfield. If that continues to be the case in this tournament, the emphasis will be on swift fielding and running between the wickets, where Sri Lanka will have an edge. The overall strike rate and average is also the lowest at this venue, which suggests the tournament could be a low scoring one. Teams that have batted first in day night games have won seven games and lost six, which does not indicate any major advantage.

Both fast bowlers and spinners have performed similarly at this venue as summarised in the table below. The spinners have a slightly better average and strike-rate when compared to the pace bowlers. Muralitharan is the leading bowler at this venue having picked up 39 wickets in 18 matches followed by Farveez Maharoof, who has 18 wickets from nine games.