The national selectors of India have announced a 20-member squad for the upcoming limited-overs tour of Sri Lanka. The BCCI selectors were forced to face an extraordinary situation with almost all of the senior members of the Indian team touring in England for the maiden World Test Championship Final against New Zealand and for the 5-match Test series against England. However, they still have a talented pool to select the players from. Thanks to India’s superb A-program and the confidence that youngsters have got from the Indian Premier League tournament.
Apart from the team selectors, the BCCI selectors were also faced with the challenge of picking a captain and vice-captain. However, they got lucky having Shikhar Dhawan and Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the side who were appointed as captain and vice-captain respectively! Manish Pandey, Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya will provide the much-needed strength to India’s middle-order during this tour.
Devdutt Padikkal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Rahul Tewatia, Varun Chakravarthy and Chetan Sakariya have all been named in the squad. With their current performances for their respective franchises in the IPL, there would be a high chance for each of them to make a debut for India in one or the other games during this tour. I personally looking forward to seeing them in Indian colors and excel.
Going by the current form, Sanju Samson would easily pip Ishan Kishan as first-choice wicket-keeper but India can have both of them in the line-up though if needed. Bhuvneshwar and Deepak Chahar will be a must for India in the bowling department. And with games being played in Sri Lanka, India would be tempted to play both the experienced wrist-spinners Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav for these games! Or it might open doors wide-open for both Rahul Chahar and Varun Chakravarthy in the playing XI.
As many as 3 ODIs and the same number of T20Is will be played in this tour. As per the earlier rolled-out communication, all the six limited-overs games will be played at R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo. The 3 ODIs will be played on July 13, 16 & 18 while the three T20Is will be played on July 21, 23 & 25.
India’s squad for Sri Lanka tour: Shikhar Dhawan (c), Prithvi Shaw, Devdutt Padikkal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Suryakumar Yadav, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Nitish Rana, Ishan Kishan (wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Yuzvendra Chahal, Rahul Chahar, Krishnappa Gowtham, Krunal Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy, Bhuvneshwar Kumar (vc), Deepak Chahar, Navdeep Saini, Chetan Sakariya
Net Bowlers: Ishan Porel, Sandeep Warrier, Arshdeep Singh, Sai Kishore, Simarjeet Singh
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