The BCCI on Monday announced the squad for upcoming three-match T-20 series against Sri Lanka. Virat Kohli who had a phenomenal series down under has been rested for this home series.Kohli was in supreme form in the just-concluded Australia T-20 series, where he scored 199 runs at an average of 199 with three half-centuries. Though it’s true that he has played a whole a lot of matches recently we feel that dropping him may affect hiss form as the continuity will be broken, and this will be the last thing that Indian cricket fans would want to see. Along with Kohli Rishi Dhawan, Gurkeerat Singh Mann & Umesh Yadav are the players left out from the team of Australia tour.
Pawan negi who plays for Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the IPL has been called up to the squad, most proably as a cover to Ravindra Jadeja. Negi who blows left arm orthodox spin and is also a good pinch-hitter lower down the order had a great Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy in January where struck 173 runs for Delhi in nine matches of the, and claimed six wickets at an average of 33.66.Speaking on his inclusion he had this to say
“With the WT20 just a month away, and when the entire team had contributed so well Down Under, the call was surprising. However, I had performed extremely well in the Vijay Hazare and Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy,”
He also Praised and thanked Suresh Raina
“I’ve been in constant touch with Raina bhai. We practice together in Noida, and he has been the reason behind my consistency. Whenever he is in Delhi, he makes sure he bats along with me in the nets. He tells me to visualise different situations in a match and should be my approach. One of the things he told me was that whenever I get to bat early in an innings, I should curtail big shots and try and take the game till the end. That is what I have been doing for the last one year and thankfully it has been rewarded.”
Manish pandey was also selected in the team, and joining him is Bhubneswar Kumar who missed the recent three-match T20 series against Australia due to a fractured thumb.
This series is a great opportunity for the players to impress the selectors and book their berth for the T20 World cup. And also for the team management to try and perfect the team combination before the T-20 world cup.
T20 Fixtures:
1st T20I: MCA International Stadium, Pune, 19:30 IST.
2nd T20I: JSCA International Cricket Stadium, Ranchi, 19:30 IST.
3rd T20I: ACA-VDCA Stadium, Visakhapatnam, 19:30 IST.
T20 Team (Men) Squad: MS Dhoni (Captain), Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Manish Pandey, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Jasprit Bumrah, Ashish Nehra, Harbhajan Singh, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Pawan Negi
