India’s limited-overs squad led by Shikhar Dhawan departed for Sri Lanka on Monday (June 28). The team will play six white-ball games during the tour.
Taking to Twitter, BCCI uploaded a picture of the Indian contingent and captioned the post as: "All set. Sri Lanka bound."
Dhawan and company boarded the flight after serving 14 days of quarantine in Mumbai. After landing in Sri Lanka, the Indian team will have to undergo 3 more days of hard isolation before training in isolation till July 4. After that, they will be allowed to resume full-fledged outdoor training.
The white-ball series, comprising three ODIs and as many T20Is, will be held in Colombo from July 13 to July 25.
There are many new faces in the squad with Devdutt Padikkal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Nitish Rana, K Gowtham, and Chetan Sakariya receiving maiden India call-up. Legendary Rahul Dravid has been appointed as head coach for the tour.
Dhawan, who has represented India in 34 Tests, 142 ODIs and 65 T20Is, said it is a great honour for him to lead the country at the highest level.
“It is a great honour for me to captain India. Also working with Rahul [Dravid] bhai. I have played under his coaching when I was captaining India A in Bangladesh. We sync with each other. We want an environment in which boys can express themselves, be themselves. That is how we will get the best out of them," he said in the pre-departure press conference.
During the media conference, Rahul Dravid said it is unrealistic to expect that every uncapped player will get a game.
“I think it's probably going to be unrealistic to expect us in a short tour like this with three games, or three one-dayers to give everyone an opportunity...and the selectors will be there as well," Dravid remarked.
India's squad for Sri Lanka tour:
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, Chetan Sakariya.
Net Bowlers: Ishan Porel, Sandeep Warrier, Arshdeep Singh, Sai Kishore, Simarjeet Singh.
(With ANI inputs)
