Shikhar Dhawan captain: Devdutt Padikkal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Chetan Sakariya among six uncapped players for Sri Lanka tour

Dixit Bhargav | 10/06/2021
Shikhar Dhawan captain: Devdutt Padikkal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Chetan Sakariya among six uncapped players for Sri Lanka tour

Shikhar Dhawan: The selection committee has handed reigns of the white-ball team to the 35-year old opening batsman.

Veteran opening batsman Shikhar Dhawan will lead India during the tour of Sri Lanka next month. With the Test team currently in England, Dhawan was expected to be given the reigns. Pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who was not selected for the tour of England, will be the designated vice-captain for three ODIs and as many T20Is in Sri Lanka between July 13-25.

In the absence of multiple first-choice players, the selection committee led by Chetan Sharma has handed maiden call-ups to as many as five players namely Devdutt Padikkal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Nitish Rana, Krishnappa Gowtham and Chetan Sakariya.

It is worth mentioning that the likes of Padikkal and Gaikwad have been consistent performers for their respective state teams and India A across formats. Rana, on the other hand, has finally reaped fruits of doing well in the Indian Premier League in the last half-a-decade for Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders.

As for Gowtham, he has been selected as the second spin-bowling all-rounder after Krunal Pandya. Given his dual skills, Gowtham might well be used down the order in Sri Lanka. Sakariya, who had made his IPL debut for Rajasthan Royals this year, has also been fast tracked into the national team.

In addition to these newcomers, the selectors have also handed respective comebacks to batsmen Prithvi Shaw and Manish Pandey, wicket-keeper batsman Sanju Samson and fast bowler Navdeep Saini. Varun Chakravarthy, who had received a maiden call-up before the tour of Australia last year but missed the same due to an injury, has also been included among the six spin-bowling options.

Twitter reactions on Shikhar Dhawan being named India captain:

Indian team for Sri Lanka tour – Shikhar Dhawan (c), Prithvi Shaw, Devdutt Padikkal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Suryakumar Yadav, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Nitish Rana, Ishan Kishan (wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Yuzvendra Chahal, Rahul Chahar, Krishnappa Gowtham, Krunal Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy, Bhuvneshwar Kumar (vc), Deepak Chahar, Navdeep Saini, Chetan Sakariya.

Post Edited By: Dixit Bhargav
Chetan Sakariya Devdutt Padikkal India India tour of Sri Lanka 2021 Krishnappa Gowtham Nitish Rana Ruturaj Gaikwad Shikhar Dhawan Sri Lanka

About the author

Dixit Bhargav

Born and brought up in Pathankot, Dixit Bhargav is an engineering and sports management graduate who works as a Cricket Editor at The SportsRush. Having written more than 10,000 articles across more than five years at TSR, his first cricketing memory dates back to 2002 when former India captain Sourav Ganguly had waved his jersey at the historic Lord’s balcony. What followed for an 8-year-old was an instant adulation for both Ganguly and the sport. The optimist in him is waiting for the day when Punjab Kings will win their maiden Indian Premier League title. When not watching cricket, he is mostly found in a cinema hall watching a Punjabi movie.

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