Why Suryakumar Yadav not playing today’s 1st ODI vs Sri Lanka: Is SKY ODI record bad?

India and Sri Lanka are playing against each other in the 1st ODI of the 3-match ODI series at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium in Guwahati. Sri Lanka won the toss and opted to bowl first as chasing has been easy here. Even Rohit Sharma said that he would have bowled first as well.

Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul and Virat Kohli are back in the team, and all three of them have a point to prove in the series. Mohammed Siraj and Mohammed Shami are also back in the team. There are a lot of questions on the form of senior players, and they will have to respond.

Sri Lanka fought well in the T20Is, and they would aim to get some results in the ODIs. Wanindu Hasaranga’s form will play a vital role in this series for the visitors. The top-order of the side certainly looks solid.

Why Suryakumar Yadav not playing today’s 1st ODI vs Sri Lanka

In the Indian playing 11, there are a couple of notable absentees. Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav are not playing the match, and it may surprise a few fans as Ishan scored a double-century in the last ODI match he played, whereas Surya is coming on the back of an excellent century in the last T20I in Rajkot.

The biggest surprise is the missing name of Suryakumar Yadav. With Ishan not playing, KL Rahul has to play the role of a wicketkeeper, and India decided to play Shreyas Iyer over Surya. Surya has been terrific in the T20 format, but his ODI form was not great last year as well.

Iyer scored 724 ODI runs last year at 55.69 with the help of 6 half-centuries and 1 century, whereas Surya managed to score 260 runs at 26.00 with the help of one half-century. So, it is clear that Iyer certainly deserves a place over Surya in ODIs based on the performances.

ALSO READ: Shreyas Iyer last 10 ODI innings list

Indian captain Rohit confirmed yesterday that Ishan will have to miss out despite scoring a double-century. Gill played a lot of ODIs last year, and he did great as well with the bat. Rohit said that it’s unfortunate for Ishan to miss out, but Gill deserves a spot in the playing eleven.