Not ideal preparation for India tour - Mathews

Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews has said his players have not had sufficient time to prepare thoroughly for the ODI series in India in November. Sri Lanka's players were in the middle of a break from international cricket but have been asked to fill the gap in the BCCI's calendar after West Indies abandoned their tour of India because of a payment structure dispute.

"The preparation for the series is not that great, we only had a few practice sessions especially with the weather interrupting," Mathews said. "It is not the ideal preparation for an Indian tour but we will do our best to prepare ourselves and take it as it comes."

After the home series against Pakistan in August, Sri Lanka were not due to play until they hosted England in late November. They were using the down time to rest some players who had been on the road since December 2013, and also began physical training sessions.

"We had a good break to improve our physical fitness; a good month and a half fitness session, and now we have to maintain that fitness," Mathews said. "I am sure during the Indian matches we won't be able to do strenuous training as we did in the past one and a half months, but we will try and maintain it and look at it positively.

"We were preparing for the England series because we knew that there weren't any tours coming before that. We were focused on a lot on fitness and we just started batting three days ago. We only had a few skill-training sessions. We needed to reach our peak levels during the England series but now that we've been thrown into a challenge we will try our best to be prepared as much as we can."

Sri Lanka will leave for India on October 28 and begin the tour with a practice game against India A in Mumbai on October 30, before the five-match ODI series starts on November 2.

"We will try to use the series to keep our momentum going as well as try and get our World Cup combinations right, that will be our main focal point," Mathews said. "Our World Cup preparations started from the Pakistan series. I need to make sure I get the team right before the series in New Zealand. The confidence level of the team is also pretty crucial as we move into the last few months of the World Cup but then again we need to look at our options and get the combinations right as well."

In the absence of Lahiru Thirimanne and Dinesh Chandimal from the batting line-up, young players like Niroshan Dickwella and Ashan Priyanjan have an opportunity to book a place in the World Cup squad.

"We still haven't decided on our combination but all 15 are candidates to make it to the final 11," Mathews said. "The main idea is to look at the younger players as well. Niroshan is a really good player so we want to try him out."

Kumar Sangakkara is expected to keep wicket but he has a back niggle and Mathews said there is a possibility of Dickwella taking the gloves. "Sanga is having a small disc problem in his back, he was complaining of it, but it's nothing serious, he was getting better every day so hopefully he will be okay," Mathews said. "We might have to monitor him in the next few days, if he can he will keep otherwise we will have to play Dickwella."

With three openers in the squad - Tillakaratne Dilshan, Upul Tharanga and Kusal Perera - Mathews said they were looking at Tharanga as an opener, but if the need arose he could play in the middle. Injuries to fast bowlers Lasith Malinga and Suranga Lakmal forced the selectors to pick the uncapped Lahiru Gamage, a 26-year old medium-pacer.

"Champaka Ramanayake (from the coaching department) has recommended Lahiru because he has been working with him a lot and playing in A team matches and performing really well. We been hit by a few injuries so we want to see how Lahiru performs at top level," Mathews said. "It's a really good tour to prove himself, it's going to be tough. He is a seamer who bowls around mid 130s and gets in those yorkers as well. India is a tough tour and we all know that. He will find it difficult to bowl there but I am sure he will do well."

Mathews also said Rangana Herath was being rested for the series and that leaving out Ajantha Mendis was a "tactical move".

Mathews warned his team could not be complacent because the India captain MS Dhoni had been rested for the first three ODIs. "Dhoni is a great strength to the Indian team and if he is rested we have a very good chance but we still cannot be complacent because we all know that India is a difficult place to play cricket," he said. "We had bad experiences in the past. We will try and play positive and good cricket to win against them."

Sri Lanka have not won a bilateral ODI series in India. Their best performance was a drawn three-match series in 1997.