Toss news: Sri Lanka skipper Dasun Shanaka won the toss and elected to bowl first against debutants Namibia in their first-round match at the Twenty20 World Cup on Monday.

The former champions will have to fight it out in Group A for a place in the Super 12 stage and Shanaka said they are up for the challenge.

"The team is doing good in the last six months, we got a few good series wins and also won some warm-up matches," said Shanaka.

"It is about handling the situations and our guys have been handling them well in the last few months."

It is the second match of the day in Abu Dhabi after Ireland thrashed the Netherlands in the Group A opener.

Namibia captain Gerhard Erasmus said his team would be happy to put on runs in the first innings.

"I think from the last game we saw the pitch getting slow, so not too worried about that," said Erasmus.

"Hopefully we can set up a total and put them under pressure. When you have runs on the board, you can put the ball in their half."

Teams

Sri Lanka: Kusal Perera (wk), Pathum Nissanka, Dinesh Chandimal, Avishka Fernando, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Dasun Shanaka (capt), Chamika Karunaratne, Wanindu Hasaranga, Dushmantha Chameera, Maheesh Theekshana, Lahiru Kumara

Namibia: Stephan Baard, Zane Green (wk), Craig Williams, Gerhard Erasmus (capt), David Wiese, JJ Smit, Jan Frylinck, Pikky Ya France, Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton, Ruben Trumpelmann, Bernard Scholtz

Umpires: Adrian Holdstock (RSA), Paul Reiffel (AUS)

TV umpire: Rod Tucker (AUS)

Match referee: David Boon (AUS)

With inputs from AFP