GUWAHATI: India skipper Rohit Sharma missed the recently concluded T20I series against Sri Lanka as Hardik Pandya was named skipper of the Men in Blue side for cricket’s shortest format.
The ODI series against Sri Lanka will see the return of captain Rohit Sharma, who has been out of action after sustaining a finger injury during the second ODI against Bangladesh.
Hardik being captain of India’s T20I side for Sri Lanka sparked speculation that Rohit would only lead in ODIs and Tests in what appeared to be a transforming period for India.
However, came out to clear the air over his T20I future ahead of the ODI series and said that he has “not decided to give up” in the format.
“Firstly, it is not possible to play back-to-back matches. You need to give them (all format players) enough break. I definitely fall in that as well. We have three T20Is against New Zealand. We will see what happens after IPL. I have not decided to give up the format,” Rohit Sharma said in a pre-match press conference on Monday.
India will play their opening game of the three-match ODI against Sri Lanka on Tuesday in Guwahati. The ODIs will be held in Guwahati, Kolkata and Trivandrum on January 10, 12 and 15 respectively.
India will be without the services of their pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah for the three-match ODI series against Sri Lanka starting on Tuesday, the Board of Control for Cricket (BCCI) announced on Monday.
The likes of Virat Kohli, KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer will too return to the squad after being rested for the three-match T20I series against Sri Lanka, which Men in Blue clinched by 2-1 under the captaincy of Hardik Pandya.
India have a packed calendar ahead, starting with the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in February-March against Australia. They are also in contention for a top-two spot in the ICC World Test Championship and later in the year, will host the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup.
Updated squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Hardik Pandya (vc), Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Umran Malik and Arshdeep Singh. (ANI)