Indian squad for the Sri Lanka white ball series will be decided next week after new head coach Gautam Gambhir meets the Ajit Agarkar-led selection panel, a report in Hindustan Times stated. (More Cricket News)
In the first assignment for India's newly-appointed head coach, the Men In Blue will be travelling to Sri Lanka for three T20Is and three ODIs starting July 26.
The experienced duo of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are set to be rested for the series. Jasprit Bumrah will also not travel with the team with his workload being managed.
Hardik Pandya is set to lead the Indian team in T20Is. However, the report does not confirm whether the allrounder will be announced as the permanent skipper in the shortest format or not. Hardik was the vice-captain of the T20 World Cup winning team.
The T20I side is expected to retain most of the members. Reportedly, hard-hitting Abhishek Sharma who just hit his maiden century in just his second T20I is also in line to get selected.
KL Rahul, who has been out of the T20I side, will be leading the team in ODIs. Shreyas Iyer is also set for an ODI comeback.
Iyer and Gambhir worked together for Kolkata Knight Riders in this IPL where the former was the captain of the team while the latter was mentor.
If selected, the series will be Iyer's first since he fell out of favour of BCCI and lost his national contract.
The Hindustan Times report also stated that Shubman Gill was being seen as a potential long term option for ODI captaincy.
India's tour to Sri Lanka begins on Friday, July 26 with the first T20I. The second T20I takes place a day after and the final T20I of the series takes place on July 29. Three ODIs are then scheduled for August 1,4 and 7.
Pallekele hosts the T20I series while the ODIs take place in Colombo.
