Mumbai: Shikhar Dhawan will captain India on a six-match white-ball tour of Sri Lanka in July, the BCCI announced late Thursday night. It was expected that Shikhar Dhawan will be named captain of the India-A side as the other seniors are currently doing duty in England. India is all scheduled to take on New Zealand in the World Test Championship (WTC) final followed by a five-test series against England. The WTC final starts June 18 at Southampton.
Medium pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar will be vice-captain of the 20-member squad announced. Five net bowlers have also been picked keeping in mind that the entire squad will have to be in the bio-bubble in Colombo during the entire duration of the series.
The all-India senior selection committee picked the squad for three ODIs and three T20I series. The matches will be played between July 13 and 25, said a statement from the BCCI.
It is expected that the Sri Lankans will be fielding their first team in all the six games.
All-rounder Hardik Pandya has also been included in the Indian squad. The selectors are keen to see how he bowls during the series. Since his back surgery, Hardik has not bowled much. However, if he is to fare in India’s scheme of things in the T20 World Cup to be played later in the year, Hardik will be needed as a bowler. So this series will be an option to test out how much Hardik has regained his bowling capabilities.
Among others Devdut Padikkal and Ruturaj Gaikwad have been included in the squad after the brilliant show in two editions of the IPL.
The squad: Shikhar Dhawan (captain), Prithvi Shaw, Devdutt Padikkal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Suryakumar Yadav, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Nitish Rana, Ishan Kishan (wicket-keeper), Sanju Samson (wicket-keeper), Yuzvendra Chahal, Rahul Chahar, K Gowtham, Krunal Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy, Bhuvneshwar Kumar (vice-captain), Deepak Chahar, Navdeep Saini and Chetan Sakariya
Net bowlers: Ishan Porel, Sandeep Warrier, Arshdeep Singh, Sai Kishore, Simarjeet Singh
Itinerary (all matches will be played at the R Premadasa International Cricket Stadium, Colombo):
1st ODI July 13
2nd ODI July 16
3rd ODI July 18
1st T20I July 21
2nd T20I July 23
3rd T20I July 25
