The Indian contingent under the captaincy of Shikhar Dhawan has finally boarded their flight to Sri Lanka on Monday. They will be playing three ODIs and as many T20Is in the island nation. Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) took to Twitter and shared pictures of the 20-man squad and the 5 net bowlers.
Captioning teh picture on Twitter BCCI wrote: “All SET! Sri Lanka bound.” The pictures feature Shikhar Dhawan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Hardik Pandya, Prithvi Shaw, and all the other members of the squad.
All SET! 💙
Sri Lanka bound 🇱🇰✈️#TeamIndia 🇮🇳 #SLvIND pic.twitter.com/eOMmiuxi28
— BCCI (@BCCI) June 28, 2021
In a press conference on Sunday, skipper Shikhar Dhawan and coach Rahul Dravid made it clear that several youngsters on the tour will be fighting for a place in the T20 team for this year’s World Cup but winning the two limited-overs series will be their primary goal.
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Dravid said, “I think it”s probably going to be unrealistic to expect us in a short tour like this with three games, or three one-dayers to give everyone an opportunity…and the selectors will be there as well. I think the key goal of everyone in the squad and in the team…is to try and win the series.”
A total of six new players have been added to the squad — Devdutt Padikkal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Krishnappa Gowtham, Chetan Sakariya, Varun Chakravarthy, and Nitish Rana. The veteran Indian opener Shikhar Dhawan will be leading teh team in the 6-white ball matches (3 ODIs and 3 T20Is). Bhuvneshwar Kumar has been appointed as the deputy of Dhawan for the short tour.
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The ODI matches will be played on July 13, 16, and 18, and T20I matches on July 21, 23, and 25. Notably, the Indian Test team under the captaincy of Virat Kohli is currently in England and is now gearing up for the 5-Test series versus England from August 4.
