Allrounder Hardik Pandya will likely skip the ODI leg of India’s Sri Lanka tour, while the new head coach Gautam Gambhir is keen on having Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Jasprit Bumrah play the ODI series.
According to a report in the Indian Express, Pandya, who played a pivotal role in India’s victorious T20 World Cup campaign in the Caribbean last month and who is a frontrunner to lead the team in the T20Is, could miss the ODIs due to personal reason.
The Indian teams for the Sri Lanka tour, comprising three T20Is and three ODIs, will likely be announced today and the series will mark Gambhir’s first assignment as India head coach.
Pandya, who last played an ODI in October 2023 in the World Cup 2023 group game against Bangladesh and got injured during the game subsequently being ruled out of the tournament, has reportedly informed BCCI about his unavailability due to personal reasons. Pandya’s potential absence could now prove to be a golden opportunity for someone like Shivam Dube to stake his claim in India’s ODI scheme of things as a fast-bowling allrounder.
It was widely speculated that senior players like Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, and Ravindra Jadeja could give Sri Lanka ODIs a miss, thus extending their break after the T20 World Cup. However, contrary to the speculations Gambhir seems to be keen to bring in the senior players for the ODI series ‘as the Indian team will be getting one more long break thereafter’.
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