The BCCI President Sourav Ganguly confirmed that the Indian team will travel to Sri Lanka for a series of limited over games in July 2021, while at the same time, the other Indian team will be playing the Test series in England.
India is scheduled to play three ODIs and five T20I matches.
"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. Yes, it will be a team of white-ball specialists. It will be a different team," Ganguly told PTI in an interaction.
India’s white ball specialists to tour Sri Lanka in July, confirms Sourav Ganguly
This means a lot of Indian Premier League (IPL 2021) performers might get a chance to shine in India colors, while the bench strength will get an opportunity to showcase their talents in absence of front-line India cricketers.
Therefore, Team COC presents the Indian squad for the Sri Lanka ODIs and T20Is
In absence of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and KL Rahul, it is up to Shikhar Dhawan, the next most experienced Indian player to possibly lead the Indian team on the upcoming white-ball tour of Sri Lanka in July.
Apart from him, who is an opener, the BCCI selectors have a plethora of options to choose from like Prithvi Shaw and Devdutt Padikkal being the top choices to make it into the team.
The middle-order can see some of the best players in white-ball cricket India has like Sanju Samson, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Manish Pandey, and Hardik Pandya.
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Samson and Kishan are expected to be the wicketkeeping choices, while Suryakumar, Pandey, and Hardik Pandya can form a decent middle order, which can take on all the bowlers from spinners to fast bowlers.
As for the spinners, Indian selectors may the choices of Krunal Pandya, Rahul Tewatia, Rahul Chahar, and the experienced duo of Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav. All of these spinners are of different types and have many variations. India will also have the batting prowess of Krunal and Tewatia to rely on.
Coming to the pace bowling department, Bhuvneshwar Kumar is expected to lead the Indian attack with Navdeep Saini, Jaydev Unadkat, Deepak Chahar, and possibly Kartik Tyagi being chosen.
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The BCCI selectors also have many other players to choose from but the above-mentioned players have the most experience with both the Indian team and the IPL, or otherwise.
The schedule for India’s white-ball tour to Sri Lanka is yet to be announced.
COC Predicted Indian squad for Sri Lanka ODIs and T20Is:
Shikhar Dhawan (C), Prithvi Shaw, Devdutt Padikkal, Sanju Samson (WK), Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan (WK), Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Rahul Tewatia, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Jaydev Unadkat, Kartik Tyagi, Navdeep Saini, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Rahul Chahar
