Right after Gautam Gambhir’s first press conference as Team India head coach, the Indian team was seen leaving the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Mumbai’s Bandra-Kurla Complex for Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport. The flight to Sri Lanka was slated at around 2 pm for the commencement of travel for the upcoming tour that gets underway on July 27, 2024.
The tour gets underway with three T20Is on July 27, 28 and 30, followed by a three-match ODI series from August 1. While the T20Is will be played at the Pallekele International Stadium, the R. Premadasa Stadium will host the ODIs on August 2, 4 and 7.
Gambhir was appointed head coach recently after the great Rahul Dravid. Dravid’s tenure concluded on strong notes in the T20 World Cup 2024 by his leading India to the title, retiring with some well-deserved silverware.
WATCH – Jemimah Rodrigues Joins Fans For A Heartwarming Jam Session After Victory
To his credit, his tenure saw two successive World Test Championship finals, viz., in 2021 and 2023; India ended as runner-up in these. Yet another quite heartbreaking loss to Australia was in the Cricket World Cup 2023 at Ahmedabad, despite India doing extremely well throughout the tournament.
#WATCH | Indian Men’s Cricket Team arrives at the Mumbai Airport, as they leave for #SriLanka.
Indian #CricketTeam will play the ODI and T20I series, 3 matches each, against Sri Lanka, starting on July 27 and ending on August 7. pic.twitter.com/60qIWObFfG
— DD India (@DDIndialive) July 22, 2024
In the aftermath of Rohit Sharma and many other seniors announcing their retirement from the T20Is immediately after their victory in Barbados, Suryakumar Yadav had been appointed to lead the team in the upcoming series with Shubman Gill as his deputy.
Interestingly, Hardik Pandya, who was the vice-captain for the 20-over World Cup in the Americas, has not found a place either as captain or vice-captain for this tour. The move has generated a lot of debate amongst fans and analysts alike since Pandya was being groomed—perhaps a bit too early—as a leadership man in the shorter format.
ALSO READ: Michael Vaughan Backs Joe Root To Break Sachin Tendulkar’s Test Run Record
The upcoming series against Sri Lanka will be the opening campaign for the Indian cricket team with Gambhir at its helm. All eyes are on how well the team does and settles down to the new dynamics of leadership, expecting similar success and many magic moments in the field.
