Team India’s tour of Zimbabwe concluded with a resounding 4-1 victory under the captaincy of Shubman Gill, but now, the focus shifts to the Sri Lanka assignment which gets underway on July 26. A number of top players, including the likes of Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant, etc. weren’t picked for the Zimbabwe assignment, with the Board deciding to give them a much-needed break after a victorious T20 World Cup 2024 campaign. However, not all of them are likely to return for the Sri Lanka T20I series.
As per a report in CricketNext, Hardik Pandya is expected to take up the team’s captaincy for the shortest format assignment against the Lankans while Suryakumar Yadav is likely to be named the vice-captain. Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, and Arshdep Singh are some of the other players from India’s T20 World Cup-winning squad who are likely to be picked by the selection committee.
The likes of Mohammed Siraj, Jasprit Bumrah, and Risbah Pant, on the other hand, aren’t expected to be drafted back into the team so early.
The 3-match T20I series starts on July 27 and concludes on July 30. The ODI assignment will begin on August 02. It would be interesting to see if other senior players like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, both of whom have retired from T20Is, will return for the ODI assignment next month.
The series also marks the beginning of the start of Gautam Gambhir’s stint as Team India’s head coach. Gambhir has quite a contrasting personality in comparison to Rahul Dravid, who refused to continue as Team India’s head coach beyond the recently concluded T20 World Cup.
How Gambhir gels with India’s ODI and Test captain Rohit, as well as other senior players like Kohi, would be interesting to see.
Team India’s likely T20I squad for Sri Lanka series: Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Suryakumar Yadav (VC), Sanju Samson (WK), Hardik Pandya (C), Axar Patel, Rinku Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Ravi Bishnoi, Dhruv Jurel (WK), Washington Sundar, Abhishek Sharma, Shivam Dube, Harshit Rana
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