Team India's white ball specialists to tour Lanka in July
BCCI president Sourav Ganguly has said that the Indian cricket team will tour Sri Lanka in July for a limited-overs bilateral series. However, the top players will not be featuring in the series. The likes of skipper Virat Kohli and vice-captain Rohit Sharma will not be part of the tour as they will be engaged in a marquee five-match Test series in England.
The Indian players, who will be playing against England in the Test series, won't be a part of the Lankan tour. Besides Kohli and Rohit, the likes of Rishabh Pant, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja, and Axar Patel amongst several others won't be participating in the the tour of Lanka.
Ganguly said that it will be a different squad, which won't have anyone from the outfit that will be in England at that time."Yes, it will be a team of white ball specialists. It will be a different team," the former India captain said.
Ganguly told PTI that a white ball series against Sri Lanka has been planned during the month of July. The series will comprise of T20Is and ODIs. "We have planned a white ball series for the senior men's team during the month of July where they will play T20 Internationals and ODIs in Sri Lanka," Ganguly said.
India's tour of England will be ending on September 14. Post that, the remainder of the suspended IPL 2021 season is likely to be on the table. As per sources, the BCCI wants the likes of Shikhar Dhawan, Hardik Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, and Yuzvendra Chahal to be match ready. Keeping the ICC T20 World Cup in mind, the probable players need games.
"The BCCI president is very keen that all our top players are match ready and since England doesn't have a white ball leg the month of July can be utilized well," a BCCI source told PTI, explaining the logic behind the tour.
Prithvi Shaw and Devdutt Padikkal are likely to be preferred. One between the two will open alongside Dhawan. Suryakumar Yadav looks the ideal choice at number three. In the middle-order, Shreyas Iyer is set to return after an injury. Also, Ishan Kishan and Sanju Samson could make the cut. They can don the wicket-keeping roles. Hardik and Krunal Pandya can add substance as all-rounders.
KKR spinner Varun Chakravarthy could make his debut. Rahul Chahar, who was exceptional in the curtailed IPL 2021 season, will be given a shot alongside Chahal and Rahul Tewatia. In the pace department, Shardul Thakur, T Natarajan, Khaleel Ahmed could join Deepak and Bhuvi.
