India squad for Sri Lanka Highlights: Suryakumar made India T20I captain; Rohit, Kohli part of ODIs

Abhishek Sharma, who scored a 46-ball century against Zimbabwe recently, has been dropped from the T20I squad to face Sri Lanka. Will his absence be a big miss for India, and how will Riyan Parag perform?

Why is Abhishek Sharma not part of the T20 team? And Riyan Parag is

— Vikrant Gupta (@vikrantgupta73) July 18, 2024

Shubman Gill is vice-captain for both ODIs and T20Is. The selectors have made their choice in terms of leadership atleast in the short term. #SLvInd #IndvsSL

— Chetan Narula (@chetannarula) July 18, 2024

Shivam Dube in place of Sanju Samson in the ODIs is ridiculous. Poor Sanju scored a century in his last series against SA. Why him always? My heart goes out to this young man #SLvIND

— Dodda Ganesh | ದೊಡ್ಡ ಗಣೇಶ್ (@doddaganesha) July 18, 2024

The India squad for the T20I and ODI series against Sri Lanka have been announced. Suryakumar Yadav will lead India in the T20Is, whereas Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma feature in the ODI squad, with Rohit set to lead.

India T20I Squad: Suryakumar Yadav (C), Ꮪhubman Gill (VC), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rinku Singh, Riyan Parag, Rishabh Pant (WK), Sanju Samson (WK), Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Khaleel Ahmed, Mohd. Siraj.

India ODI squad: Rohit Sharma (C), Ꮪhubman Gill (VC), Virat Kohli, KL Rahul (WK), Rishabh Pant (WK), Shreyas Iyer, Shivam Dube, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohd. Siraj, Washington Sundar, Arshdeep Singh, Riyan Parag, Axar Patel, Khaleel Ahmed, Harshit Rana.

If he gets named in the squad for the Sri Lanka tour, Shreyas Iyer will be making his return to the Indian team for the first time since the second Test against England in Visakhapatnam.

The senior batter was dropped for the rest of the England Tests and was also left out of the BCCI’s central contracts list. However, according to one report, Iyer’s name could be added to the contracts list now that he has redeemed himself after leading KKR to the IPL title in May.

While he remains one of the world’s top T20 batters, Suryakumar Yadav’s numbers when it comes to One-Day Internationals isn’t great, collecting 773 runs at an average of 25.76.

SKY had a horror run in a three-match series against Australia at home before the IPL last year, and his numbers hardly picked up in the World Cup later in 2023, also on home soil.

While Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have reportedly agreed to join the Indian team for the ODI series in Sri Lanka that takes place between 2 and 7 August, there hasn’t been an official confirmation on pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah so far.

With the amount of physical stress that fast bowlers experience along with a crammed cricketing calendar, teams are most cautious about their pacers’ workloads than ever. Especially the Men in Blue, who have been fairly liberal when it comes to giving Bumrah as well as others such as Mohammed Shami breaks from time to time.

Given the crucial role that Bumrah is expected to play in the five-Test series in Australia later this year, it remains to be seen if they end up including the Mumbai Indians pacer for the white-ball fixtures in Sri Lanka.

According to one report, both Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are set to return from their breaks after the T20 World Cup, and have made themselves available for the upcoming ODI series in the tour of Sri Lanka.

Looks like coach Gautam Gambhir has been successful in convincing the two seniors in joining the rest of the team.

It wasn’t that long ago when Shreyas Iyer had been dropped from the Indian Test team and wasn’t included in the central contracts list along with Ishan Kishan. The batter, however, has since redeemed himself by leading Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to their third IPL title in May.

Iyer thus gave the Indian cricket community another reminder of his solid leadership skills, having previously led Delhi Capitals to the final of IPL 2020, and has positioned himself as a strong candidate to succeed Rohit as skipper down the road.

If he doesn’t get that job right away, the Indian team management might drop a hint by appointing him vice-captain in the Sri Lanka tour.

Former India leg-spinner Amit Mishra recently made some sensational claims about Virat Kohli, describing him as someone who had changed as a person after his meteoric rise as a cricketer as well as being appointed India and Royal Challengers Bengaluru captain.

Dayal, who currently plays alongside Kohli at RCB, came to the batting superstar’s defence. “It’s an honour to stand beside you, bhaiya @virat.kohli,” wrote the left-arm pacer in a post on Instagram.

How much longer will Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli continue to represent Team India?

According to former teammate Amit Mishra, they will likely bring the curtains down on their international career in “two-three years”.

What are India’s squads for the white-ball tour of Sri Lanka likely to look like? How many players from the recently-concluded tour of Zimbabwe will feature in the upcoming T20I and ODI series?

Read: What to expect from India’s white-ball squads for Sri Lanka tour

In case you missed it, Gautam Gambhir recently bid an emotional goodbye to Kolkata Knight Riders, their fans and to the ‘City of Joy’ after succeeding Rahul Dravid as India head coach.

Though he isn’t likely to play a part in India’s tour of Sri Lanka that gets underway later this month, Mohammed Shami has taken the first major step towards his comeback into the Indian team.

The senior pacer, who had undergone surgery on his foot in February to repair a damaged Achilles tendon, shared a video on his official Instagram account in which he was seen bowling in the nets. If things go as planned during his rehabilitation, he could regain full fitness in time for the tour of Australia later this year.

Gautam Gambhir has mentored Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises but no job can prepare you what he has in store now: head coach of the Indian cricket team. He has been appointed as the successor to Rahul Dravid with tour of Sri Lanka being his first assignment.

Read: What is Gautam Gambhir’s strategy and mantra as coach?

Yashasvi Jaiswal, who scored 141 runs in the series against Zimbabwe, rises four places to sixth in the ICC T20I rankings for batters. Travis Head leads the charts with Suryakumar Yadav second.

Shubman Gill was the leading run scorer in the series with 170 runs from five innings. He moves 36 places to 37th in the latest standings.

Gill is now the fourth highest ranked India player, with the 24-year-old moving past recently retired Rohit Sharma (42nd) and Virat Kohli (51st) to only trail Suryakumar, Jaiswal and Ruturaj Gaikwad (eighth).

Among the bowlers, Washington Sundar moved 36 spots up to 46th and Mukesh Kumar climbed 21 rungs to 73rd.