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India's first Test in more than seven months began on a good note: MS Dhoni won the toss and chose to bat on a good, hard Ahmedabad pitch, "very different from the one we last played on". The last Test that Dhoni referred to was the one against South Africa, when India were shot out for 76 on the first morning.

Dhoni also suggested his team would have to change the mental approach to batting, this Test coming after 17 continuous ODIs and five Twenty20s for them. The India XI, though, wore a settled look; Sreesanth and Pragyan Ojha sitting out, and as expected the two Tamil Nadu back-up batsmen not getting a look in.

Sri Lanka, even though they have played regular Test matches and risen to No. 2 in the rankings, were looking to win a Test in India for the first time. They started off with a slightly strange selection: Nuwan Kulasekara and Thilan Thushara, their two successful fast bowlers, were not on the final list, neither was Ajantha Mendis. Dammika Prasad and Chanaka Welegedara, total experience of four Tests between them, were to take the new ball, and left-arm spinner Rangana Herath playing in place of Mendis.

India 1 Gautam Gambhir, 2 Virender Sehwag, 3 Rahul Dravid, 4 Sachin Tendulkar, 5 VVS Laxman, 6 Yuvraj Singh, 7 MS Dhoni (capt/wk), 8 Harbhajan Singh, 9 Zaheer Khan, 10 Ishant Sharma, 11 Amit Mishra.

Sri Lanka 1 Tharanga Paranavitana, 2 Tillakaratne Dilshan, 3 Kumar Sangakkara (capt), 4 Mahela Jayawardene, 5 Thilan Samaraweera, 6 Angelo Mathews, 7 Prasanna Jayawardene (wk), 8 Dammika Prasad, 9 Chanaka Welegedara, 10 Muttiah Muralitharan, 11 Rangana Herath.