A fresh start beckons for Sri Lanka

The last time these two sides met, they produced perhaps the best match of the World Twenty20 and set the tournament alight after an uninspiring group stage. Just over a month later, New Zealand return with almost the same squad and with similar expectations of victory. For Sri Lanka, that month has seemed an eternity.

They are missing their two best Twenty20 players, who are being rested after the Champions League, but the biggest hindrance to Sri Lanka's success may be the memories of a traumatic World Twenty20 final. Time may have given them perspective - they did better than 10 other teams after all - but they will not have shaken the emptiness in their gut after that title was snatched from them. It is up to the new man at the helm, Angelo Mathews, to re-energise the team and push them past their disappointment, which is a process that took months after their last finals defeat.

New Zealand, meanwhile, will sense their chance to begin the tour strongly, with a wounded and weakened Sri Lanka side to take the field. Pallekele is now almost as familiar to them as it is to the hosts, and a pitch that has seen alarmingly little sunshine over the past week will have plenty in it for their seam bowlers.

And therein lies the biggest concern for this match and the tour in general: to what extent will the monsoon allow it to happen? Large parts of Sri Lanka were in drought when New Zealand were last here, but a few days after the World Twenty20 finished, the rains arrived and have barely ceased since. Neither team could train on the eve of the match, and if the forecasts are correct, no cricket will be played on Tuesday night.

Form guide

(Completed matches, most recent first)

Sri Lanka : LWWWT
New Zealand: TLTLW