Rain, or more precisely precious little water still on the outfield, has delayed the start of play in Adelaide but Jayawardene did win the toss and now will be backing in his side to chase whatever target Australia can set.
Coming off losing the Test series comprehensively 3-0, Sri Lanka showed little more in Friday's opening one-day game losing by 107 runs and both sides have made several changes coming into Game 2 of the five-match series on Sunday.
After Friday's dominant performance at the MCG, Australia has left out left-arm fast bowling pair Mitchell Starc and Mitchell Johnson, both struggling with niggling injuries, and two more debutants are their replacements.
With Phil Hughes, Usman Khawaja and Aaron Finch also making their debuts in one-day international cricket in Melbourne on Friday, Queenslander Ben Cutting and South Australian Kane Richardson both come in for their first matches to replace Johnson and Starc.
Somewhat surprisingly, Khawaja has been left out of the Australian side as well in favour of Steven Smith.
Sri Lanka has suffered another blow through injury with wicket-keeper batsman Dinesh Chandimal out of the side with a hamstring injury.
He has looked tremendous in both the Test series and one-day match on Friday since replacing Prasanna Jayawardene, but is yet another key player that the tourists will now be without.
That means that Sri Lanka is forced to turn to its fourth-choice wicket-keeper Kushal Perera to make his debut.
TEAMS
Australia – George Bailey (captain), Phil Hughes, Aaron Finch, David Hussey, Steven Smith, Glenn Maxwell, Brad Haddin, Ben Cutting, Kane Richardson, Clint McKay, Xavier Doherty.
Sri Lanka – Mahela Jayawardene (captain), Tillakaratne Dilshan, Upul Tharanga, Lahiru Thirimanne, Angelo Mathews, Kushal Perera, Jeevan Mendis, Thisara Perera, Nuwan Kulasekara, Lasith Malinga, Ajantha Mendis.