As per various reports, the BCCI was scheduled to announce the squads on Wednesday but because there was no consensus yet on whether Hardik Pandya or Suryakumar Yadav will led the team in T20Is, the announcement was delayed for another day and will reportedly happen on Thursday.
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Rohit Sharma announced his retirement from T20Is after India won the T20 World Cup under his captaincy last month. That left the BCCI to decide whether to bring Hardik back as skipper in the shortest format or let Surykumar Yadav, who replaced Hardik after his injury last year, to continue to lead the team in T20Is.
Hardik was in rehab after injuring his ankle in the middle of the ODI World Cup last year and returned to competitive cricket only in the IPL earlier this year. In between that, Surya led India in the team’s 4-1 T20I series win against Australia.
Moreover, new coach Gautam Gambhir is reportedly apprehensive about Hardik’s fitness as the allrounder has suffered injuries (back, ankle) in the recent past.
Several reports also suggested that Gambhir had a robust meeting with BCCI secretary Jay Shah over a video call from Delhi, where they discussed the approach for the road ahead but couldn’t reach a decision over T20I captaincy, with Gambhir in favour of Surya and Shah backing Hardik.
Seniors like Rohit, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah are likely to be rested for the tour. However, a Cricbuzz report on Wednesday suggested that Rohit might make himself available for the three-match ODI series.
The Sri Lanka tour will be Gambhir’s first assignment as head coach after he replaced Rahul Dravid in the position at the conclusion of the T20 World Cup.
The tour kicks off on July 27 with the first game of the three-match T20I series.