Hello Cricket Lovers,
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Amid all the scares of pandemic CoVid 19, India's rescheduled tour of Sri Lanka will be beginning from tomorrow with India scheduled to play 3 One Day Internationals and as many Twenty20 matches.
India will be captained by Indian team opener Shikhar Dhawan with Bhuvneshwar Kumar being his deputy while India team coach for this series is Rahul Dravid
Rahul Dravid is former Indian Cricketer with over 10K runs in ODI's and more than 13K runs in Test Cricket and he is the current coach of Under 19 and India A teams along with being the Director of National Cricket Academy at Bangalore.
Although India never sent 2 different teams to play at a time before like in current situation, where, there are teams in England and Sri Lanka, CoVid 19 forced many of the series to be cancelled over the past 2 years and to be rescheduled and as the 2 tour dates clashed (Sri Lanka and England tours by team India), India have to prepare 2 different teams One each to tour England and Sri Lanka.
While the team to England is being captained by regular captain, Virat Kohli with most of the senior players, team to Sri Lanka is being captained by Shikhar Dhawan.
Coach - Rahul Dravid:
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Rahul Dravid who is touted as the next team India coach, is someone with vast experience as a batsman and has worked with different teams as a coach including IPL teams Rajasthan Royals and Delhi Daredevils besides working with Indian Under 19 and India A teams and taking over as Director of NCA.
With him being the coach of the team to Sri Lanka, most of the players might have already played under him in Under 19 and A teams and so, he will not be a new coach to some of them.
Captain - Shikhar Dhawan:
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India team in Sri Lanka will be captained by team India opener and former captain of Sunrisers Hyderabad IPL team, Shikhar Dhawan.
Shikhar is a regular in Indian ODI and T20 teams and will be captaining the team of an International touring team for the First time and he will surely be up for the challenge with his experience of captaining his state team of Delhi in Ranji Trophy matches and also the IPL team of Sunrisers Hyderabad.
He will be key as a batsman here since he most probably opens the innings along with Prithwi Shaw and needs to lay the foundation for the young players who play in the middle order.
Shikhar Dhawan will have his India teammate Bhuvneshwar Kumar as his deputy who is coming back from various injuries and will be eager to get back into Indian regular team under Virat Kohli and this tour will be very crucial to him.
Team India players to watch out for:
Indian team to Sri Lanka tour is a mix of young and experienced players.
With players like Devdutt Padikkal, Ruthuraj Gaikwad, Surya Kumar Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy and Chetan Sakariya getting International duties for the First time and they are some of the exciting cricketers who will be the future of Indian team.
The experienced players who already played for team India with likes of Pandya brothers, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Manish Pandey and others will be eager to get back to India seniors squad and play along with the likes of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma.
This tour will be more important for coach Rahul Dravid to confirm that, he is ready for team India coach position as he will be in contention for that position once current coach Ravi Shastri's tenure gets over after T20 World cup.
Probable XI:
Below is the most probable playing XI for the ODI starting tomorrow:
- Shikhar Dhawan
- Prithwi Shaw
- Surya Kumar Yadav
- Ishan Kishan
- Manish Pandey
- Hardik Pandya
- Krunal Pandya
- Bhuvneshwar Kumar
- Deepak Chahar
- Kuldeep yadav (or Chetan Sakariya)
- Yuzvendra Chahal
That gives a balanced side to team India with 6 bowling options and enough batting as well with Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Deepak Chahar can also contribute with some runs.
That is what my view of this tour and team selection. Do you think it might be different? Please share your thoughts.