India's tour of Sri Lanka for a white-ball assignment truly marks the beginning of a new era under head coach Gautam Gambhir. In the T20I side, Suryakumar Yadav has been elevated as the captain of the side, preferred over Hardik Pandya who looked like a more natural successor to Rohit Sharma. Even In the ODI team, some bold selection calls were taken, be it the exclusion of Ravindra Jadeja, Suryakumar Yadav, or even Sanju Samson. Seeing Harshit Rana and Riyan Parag make but the rosters is a decision that hasn’t been well-digested by everyone either.
As the Gautam Gambhir era begins in Indian cricket, we take a look at the complete list of changes made in India's T20I and ODI team for the Sri Lanka series.
India's ODI Squad For Sri Lanka Series:
Ins: Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Shubman Gill, Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer, Shivam Dube, Mohammed Siraj, and Khaleel Ahmed have all made their way back to the team, while Riyan Parag and Harshit Rana have earned maiden call-ups to the ODI side.
Rishabh Pant also returned to the 50-over side, for the first time since November 2022. In the Sri Lanka series, left-arm pacer Khaleel Ahmed and all-rounder Shivam Dube could play their first ODI game for India since 2019.
Outs: Without much explanation, the BCCI selection committee axed the likes of Ruturaj Gaikwad, B Sai Sudharsan, Rajat Patidar, Sanju Samson, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Avesh Khan, Mukesh Kumar, Yuzvendra Chahal, and Akash Deep from the one-day side. Among these players, the biggest shock arguably comes from the exclusion of Samson who had scored a century in his last 50-over match.
Retained:KL Rahul, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, and Washington Sundar are the 5 players who had featured for India against South Africa in the ODI series and have retained their positions in the team against the Lankans.
India squad for Sri Lanka ODIs: Rohit Sharma (capt), Shubman Gill (vice-capt), Virat Kohli, KL Rahul (wk), Rishabh Pant (wk), Shreyas Iyer, Shivam Dube, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Washington Sundar, Arshdeep Singh, Riyan Parag, Axar Patel, Khaleel Ahmed, Harshit Rana.
India's T20I Squad For Sri Lanka Series:
Outs: The likes of Abhishek Sharma, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Dhruv Jurel, Mukesh Kumar, Tushar Deshpande, and Avesh Khan all featured for India against Zimbabwe but found no place in the team for the Sri Lanka assignment. The exclusion of Abhishek and Ruturaj, arguably was the biggest shock for fans.
Ins: Rested against Zimbabwe following a victorious T20 World Cup campaign, senior stars like Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, and Mohammed Siraj all returned to the T20I fold against the Lankans. While Kohli, Rohit and Jadeja had retired, Jasprit Bumrah and Yuzvendra Chahal were the only players from the squad who didn’t make the cut.
Retained: Several stars from the Zimbabwe assignment, Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rinku Singh, Washington Sundar, Sanju Samson, Riyan Parag, Shivam Dube, Ravi Bishnoi, and Khaleel Ahmed were retained by the selectors.
India squad for Sri Lanka T20Is: Suryakumar Yadav (capt), Shubman Gill (vice-capt), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rinku Singh, Riyan Parag, Rishabh Pant (wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Khaleel Ahmed, Mohammed Siraj.