“We’ll bowl first because of the record here. All the last three games have been chased down here,” said Shanaka.
“The approach has been outstanding by our batters and we hope to continue the same.”
India desperately need to a win to stay in the hunt for the final after they lost to Pakistan in their opening match of the Super Four.
A loss to Sri Lanka would leave them at the mercy of other teams and their results.
They have made one change with off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin coming in for Ravi Bishnoi.
“We would have bowled first as well. The pitch doesn’t change much and it only gets better to bat on,” India skipper Rohit Sharma said.
“This gives us an opportunity to come out and play freely. This is how the World Cup would be played as well, and we have to make sure that we don´t lose too many games.”
The tournament acts as a tune-up to the T20 World Cup in October-November in Australia.