Team India’s Likely Squad for the Limited-Overs Tour Of Sri Lanka

India is all set to tour Sri Lanka in July. Sourav Ganguly confirmed the news a few days ago. According to Sports Tak, India to fly to Sri Lanka on 5th July. They will be under 7 days of quarantine where 3 days will be of hard quarantine and other 4 days they’ll be allowed to train. India will be playing an ODI series as well as a T20I series which is all set to begin on the 13th of July. As India will also be playing a Test series against England during that time, the players in the Test squad won’t be able to participate in this series. This means that we will get to see a lot of youngsters in the squad. To add the that, the Indian selectors will have to select a squad without the Test specialists. Today we shall be taking a look at India’s likely squad for the limited-overs tour of Sri Lanka.

Shikhar Dhawan would be the first name on the squad. It is a no brainer. He might even be asked to lead the team as India would be without their regular skipper Virat Kohli. The other captaincy options are either injured or would be with the Test team. They include the likes of KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer. Dhawan is arguably one of the best ODI players of our era and would love the added responsibility. The other openers in the squad would be Prithvi Shaw, Mayank Agarwal. Both of them have been absolute magnificent of late. Shobha Gill would also be in the squad but he would most likely bat at 3. Coming up at number 4 would be Suryakumar Yadav. He has been one of the best players in the Indian Premiere League (IPL) and he looks all set to bat at 4 for India in the upcoming series against Sri Lanka. Sanju Samson and Ishan Kishan would mostly be the keepers in the squad and either of them would bat at 5. Coming up at 6 is Hardik Pandya. After Dhawan, he is the only regular limited-overs player from a full strength Indian squad. Hardik Pandya is a top-class batsman for India and is not part of the England Test series. The second all-rounder in the playing XI would be a toss up between Rahul Tewatia and Krunal Pandya. Both of them have proved themselves in the domestic circuit and both of them would surely do a good job batting at 7 for India.

Post the batsman, Bhuvneshwar Kumar is another key member of the squad and looks all set to be in the XI. Kumar also won the ICC player of the month award for March 2021. In the absence of pacers like Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammad Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar will emerge useful for leading the pace attack against Sri Lanka. Navdeep Saini will be another great option for a pace bowler in India’s squad. Saini is a quick pacer who has the ability to bowl at 140+ speed. Saini was part of India’s squad in the T20I series but did not get a chance to play. When it comes to spin then India would have three options. Varun Chakravarthy, Yuzvendra Chahal and Rahul Chahar. Any two out of the three would mostly feature in the squad. Deepak Chahar is another pacer who could feature in the squad but might not get a chance to play in the playing XI.

Following is India’s Predicted playing XI and squad

1) Shikhar Dhawan (C)
2) Prithvi Shaw
3) Shubhman Gill
4) Suryakumar Yadav
5) Sanju Samson (WK)
6) Hardik Pandya
7) Rahul Tewatia
8) Bhuvneshwar Kumar
9) Navdeep Saini
10) Yuzvendra Chahal
11) Varun Chakravarthy

Benched Players: Ishan Kishan, Krunal Pandya, Rahul Chahar and Deepak Chahar.