Pakistan will be looking forward to a vastly-improved performance from their batsmen against India's excellent fast bowlers Ashish Nehra, Ishant Sharma and Rudra Pratap Singh.

Pakistan will be looking to improve their chances of making it to the semi-finals from the four-team group, which also has defending champions Australia.

India have to live-up to the tag of the world No.1 and then make up for the loss of Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag and Zaheer Khan, who are all out of the tournament with injuries.

India's batting has suffered in the absence of match-winners Yuvraj and Sehwag, the former going out with a fractured finger and Virat Kohli comes in as a replacement for the second time in three weeks as the Delhi youngster went to Sri Lanka after Gautam Gambhir returned home with a groin strain.

Despite the absence of Sehwag and Yuvraj, the Indian batting has a formidable look with the two veterans Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid looking good for big innings and skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his new deputy Gambhir providing the thrust up front. Harbhajan Singh is fast developing into a handy all-rounder.

India will look to maintain their winning streak, having won five successive bilateral one-day series -- the most recent being the tri-series in Sri Lanka.

Teams (from):

India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain/wicketkeeper), Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Praveen Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Ashish Nehra, Rudra Pratap Singh, Amit Mishra, Dinesh Karthik, Abhishek Nayar.

Pakistan: Younus Khan (captain), Imran Nazir, Misbah-ul-Haq, Umar Akmal, Shoaib Malik, Shahid Afridi, Rana Naved-ul Hasan, Fawad Alam, Mohammad Yousuf, Kamran Akmal (wicketkeeper), Umar Gul, Mohammad Aamer, Mohammad Asif, Rao Iftikhar, Saeed Ajmal.

Umpires: Simon Taufel and Steve Davis (both Australia)

TV umpire: Ian Gould (England)

Match referee: Roshan Mahanama (Sri Lanka)