India had the rub of the English green when these two teams met in the NatWest Series three months ago, but Sri Lanka go into the final of the ICC Champions Trophy as slight favourites, especially after their demolition job on Australia in the semi-final. India may have won five of their last seven encounters but, perhaps crucially, one of their losses was in the Tri-Series final at the Premadasa Stadium a year ago. The pitches have got lower and slower as the tournament has gone on, so the final could well depend on spin of two kinds - the bowling and a coin. Sri Lanka's spinners had the ball turning almost square very early in the piece against Australia, whereas India's slow bowlers have done little so far to cause Sanath Jayasuriya any sleepless nights.

It's an advantage of which the Sri Lankan captain intends to make the most. "If you look at the two teams," he said, "they are very evenly matched in the batting department. But I feel we have greater variety in our bowling, with both specialists and part-time spinners."

Sourav Ganguly preferred to focus on the matches in England rather than Sri Lanka's awesome semi-final display. "We've scored runs in all conditions," he said. "We've beaten Sri Lanka in the NatWest Trophy in England and enjoy a better record against them in recent matches."

India will be wary of what happened in the last edition of this tournament, when they were easily the best side on view till the blip in the final against New Zealand. Ganguly admitted that Sri Lanka would be a different, and more challenging, proposition at home but was quietly confident about a team that has steadily improved over the past year.

Reports in the media have suggested Sachin Tendulkar is unhappy at batting lower in the order, but Ganguly laughed off suggestions of an opening reunion with his old partner-in-15-overs-crime. "He'll bat at No. 4 and I don't think anything is wrong with his form," said Ganguly. "People unnecessarily put pressure on him after a couple of failures. He's a world-class batsman." He went on to ask, "Why change the batting order when we are winning?" implying in no uncertain terms that Virender Sehwag's buccaneering blade would be the first line of offence against the hosts.

India's main worry centres on the bowling, which has looked less than razor-sharp in all three outings here. There was a time when a low, slow wicket meant an Anil Kumble masterclass and Ganguly will hope for some spin bowling of vintage variety on Sunday, rather than the form that has seen him carted all over the park over the last two weeks. Much has been made of Javagal Srinath's return – he arrived in Colombo on Saturday evening – but his recent one-day form will scarcely intimidate the Lankans. Not that the injured Ashish Nehra would have done so either.

The Indian batsmen are traditionally accomplished players of spin bowling, though Muttiah Muralitharan has embarrassed them enough down the years (most notably in a group match at Sharjah in 2000-01 when they were bowled out for 54, with Murali scalping 7 for 30). The key to success on a pitch where the ball turns sharply will be to see Murali off. And perhaps just as important, patience. Australia failed by overdoing the aggression when a score of 240 might well have been adequate. India's batting order is filled with impetuous strokeplayers, which makes it all the more important that the likes of Rahul Dravid and Mohammed Kaif are at their dependable best.

Sri Lanka's batting still relies heavily on Jayasuriya and the accumulating skills of Marvan Atapattu. That's not to discount Aravinda de Silva, who is sure to be fired up on what will be his final international appearance in front of a home crowd. But there is a brittleness to the rest of the order of which India took advantage when the teams met in England.

On what Ricky Ponting and many others see as a good one-day track, India are arguably the better side. But in front of a passionate crowd that will turn the evening sky blue and against a team that has every spinning option necessary to exploit the pitch, they could find themselves bridesmaids … again.

Teams (probable)

Sri Lanka 1 Sanath Jayasuriya (capt), 2 Marvan Atapattu, 3 Kumar Sangakkara (wk), 4 Aravinda de Silva, 5 Mahela Jayawardene, 6 Russel Arnold, 7 Kumar Dharmasena, 8 Upul Chandana, 9 Chaminda Vaas, 10 Muttiah Muralitharan, 11 Pulasthi Gunaratne.

India 1 Sourav Ganguly (capt), 2 Virender Sehwag, 3 VVS Laxman, 4 Sachin Tendulkar, 5 Rahul Dravid (wk), 6 Yuvraj Singh, 7 Mohammed Kaif, 8 Anil Kumble, 9 Zaheer Khan, 10 Harbhajan Singh, 11 Javagal Srinath.

© Wisden CricInfo Ltd