COLOMBO: India will miss the injured Harbhajan Singh but have two spinners who can make their mark in Sri Lanka, captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni said yesterday.

Experienced off-spinner Harbhajan Singh was ruled out of the one-day series with a hamstring injury.

India will play five One-Day Internationals and one Twenty20 International starting tomorrow in a hastily arranged series to fill the gap left by India's canceled tour of Pakistan in the aftermath of attacks in Mumbai last November.

In Harbhajan's absence the selectors have turned to left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja.

"Harbhajan has been the pick of our spinners and we will miss him, but we have two spinners in Pragyan Ohja and Jadeja who will try and fill in the space left by his absence," Dhoni told reporters.

"Playing Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka is always tough," added Dhoni.

"We may have won the last series but they must have seen what went wrong for them. One of the things that went wrong was the toss as that can be crucial when you are playing here, both under lights when the ball moves around in the evening and even at Dambulla where it does a lot during day games."

Sri Lanka hope to build on the winning momentum gained from their 2-1 series win against Pakistan, which followed unconvincing displays against Zimbabwe and Bangladesh.

Sri Lanka's skipper Mahela Jayawardene admits he has not contributed much to the team as a batsman lately and says he wants to use the upcoming series to regain his lost form.

"I know I need to contribute to my team with the bat but I failed to be among the runs in the last two series. The challenge ahead of me now is to work hard and correct whatever flaws with my batting," he told reporters yesterday. "I sensed some improvement during the Pakistan series and I hope that I will return to form during the India series."

"We have not been at our best in recent months but we have still been winning and that has been encouraging, showing our character under pressure," said Jayawardene. "We hope to now build on the confidence gained from our performance in Pakistan in what is going to be a very tough series against India, now one of the best teams in the world."

Jayawardene who averages above 32 runs in 294 One-Day Internationals totaled just 75 runs in his last 10 innings, most of which were against low-ranking Zimbabwe and Bangladesh teams.