Sri lanka ODI skipper Upul Tharanga on Saturday said that they will have to quickly forget the 0-3 drubbing in the Test series and draw confidence from their win over India in the Champions Trophy.
"We have got to forget the Test series and the mistakes we made. We are heading for a new format and are looking forward to it. That's the most important thing," Tharanga said on the eve of the first ODI of the five-match series.
"India have been very consistent in the last three-four years. In comparison, we lack consistency and that has been a big drawback. Our fielding has been terrible. We have dropped catches.
"But we have the confidence having beaten India in the Champions Trophy (in June). No one thought that we would beat them. If you take the last series, our batting was also good," the captain insisted.
India have rested their Test bowling line-up of Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, Ravindra Jadeja and Umesh Yadav from the ODI squad. But, even with the less experienced bowling attack, India would start as the outright favourites.
"In their ODI side, Bhuvneshwar (Kumar) is their number one bowler. They are without a few bowlers but it doesn't make their attack any weaker. We cannot under-rate their attack. They have done well in tournaments like IPl. We have to work hard and play well," Tharanga said.
Tharanga has led Sri lanka earlier in the limited-overs' format, but he is now full-time skipper after Angelo Mathews quit captaincy following the 2-3 defeat against minnows Zimbabwe at home.
"I don't think I have any pressure. We want to win. We lost to Zimbabwe, but we have a great opportunity to beat India given that we defeated them during the Champions Trophy. We are a confident lot.”
Winning two ODIs in this series will ensure Sri lanka an automatic qualification for the 2019 World Cup in England, ahead of West Indies.
"This will be more important as we are ranked eighth," he said.