New Zealand, India and Sri Lanka will look to discover their best-one day form ahead of the 2011 World Cup when the tri-series begins in Dambulla on Tuesday.
India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni will lead a team without star batsman Sachin Tendulkar and opposite number Ross Taylor is standing in for regular skipper Daniel Vettori for the opening fixture.
Among the three teams only New Zealand are heading to the tournament without having played any one-day matches for the past five months, but they have made up for lack of match practice with two warm-up wins in Sri Lanka.
New Zealand are also without big names in Vettori, Brendon McCullum and Jesse Ryder, leaving Taylor to take on the captaincy.
The middle order batsman fully appreciates the tournament will be crucial for him as well as the new faces in the squad, including left arm paceman Andy McKay and uncapped all-rounder Kane Williamson.
"This will be a big learning curve for the youngsters and myself," Taylor said about the tournament.
New Zealand are in the unique position of being able to sample the conditions in each of the three host nation countries for the World Cup.
After the tri-series they travel to play in India and Bangladesh.
"I've been here before but to get some more experience here leading into the World Cup will be invaluable," added Taylor.
India will be on a high after levelling the Test series with Sri Lanka at 1-1 but the hosts will look to close the gap in the one-day rankings as they are four places below second-placed India and two behind New Zealand.
Dhoni will lead a squad with 11 players aged 25 or under and which will also be without Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan.
However, most of India's squad have played in Sri Lanka and are familiar with conditions in Dambulla which is the only venue for the tournament which runs until August 28.
The return of Ashish Nehra and Praveen Kumar has boosted India's bowling attack, which looked unimpressive during the Test series.
Coach Gary Kirsten gave his backing to Test pace spearheads Ishant Sharma and rookie Abhimanyu Mithun, though they do not appear to be the first-choice bowlers for the tri-series.
"The way Ishant and Mithun bowled, as really young fast bowlers, was fantastic," Kirsten said.
"They didn't necessarily get all the rewards they would have liked, but they really put in a massive effort," said Kirsten, as India started to prepare for Tuesday's tournament opener against the Kiwis.
The form of one-day specialist Suresh Raina, who finished his debut Test series with scores of 120, 62 and 41 not out, will be a big plus for the men in blue, leaving plenty of options for captain Dhoni in the middle order, studded with stars like Yuvraj Singh, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma.
Hosts Sri Lanka have included paceman Dilhara Fernando, middle order batsman Chamara Silva and all-rounder Thisara Perera in their squad.
The hosts have dropped left arm seamer Chanaka Welegedara and Thilina Kandamby and rested spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, who recently retired from Test cricket.
But that presents spinners Suraj Randiv, Ajantha Mendis and Rangana Herath with a chance to press their claims.