India captain M.S. Dhoni won the toss and chose to bowl in an attempt to claim a vital bonus-point win over Sri Lanka in Hobart on Tuesday and stay in the race for the tri one-day series final.
India, trailing Sri Lanka by five points, have to win with a bonus point to have any chance of playing Australia in the final, otherwise they will be on their way home.
If India do pull off a big win, Sri Lanka will still have a match to play against Australia in Melbourne on Friday in another chance to get into the final.
Senior paceman Zaheer Khan returned to the India team in place of injured Irfan Pathan while fellow paceman Ranganath Vinay Kumar was injured and unavailable.
This may be Indian batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar's final chance on the Australian tour to claim his elusive 100th international century after going 14 Test and ODI innings without scoring a ton.
Sri Lanka, who trail Australia by four points, were unchanged.