##### INDIA vs SRILANKA - 3 ODIs & 3 T20Is / AUS vs WI - 5 T20Is , 3 ODIs #####

[Kool_SRG]

[Kool_SRG]

Shikhar Dhawan to lead India on limited-overs tour of Sri Lanka

Bhuvneshwar Kumar named vice-captain, Chetan Sakariya and Nitish Rana among new faces in the mix.

 

Devdutt Padikkal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Nitish Rana, K Gowtham and Chetan Sakariya have all received maiden call-ups to the national team, figuring in the 20-man India squad for the white-ball series in Sri Lanka, scheduled for July. The second-string squad - the main team will be in England at the time - will be captained by opening batter Shikhar Dhawan, who has never led India previously, and have fast bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar as the vice-captain.

 

India's Sri Lanka tour comprises six matches: three ODIs (on July 13, 16 and 18), followed by three T20Is (July 21, 23, 25). Former India captain Rahul Dravid has been confirmed as the head coach for the tour, although the BCCI did not announce the entire roster of support staff on Thursday when it made public details of the squad, which will have five reserve bowlers.

 

India will have to field a team in Sri Lanka shorn of its premier players because the main squad, captained by Virat Kohli, is currently in England getting ready for the inaugural World Test Championship final against New Zealand (June 18 onwards), followed by a five-Test series against England starting in August. That makes this the first instance of two senior Indian men's teams operating simultaneously in bilateral series.

 

It is no surprise that four of the five uncapped players - Gowtham the exception - all made strong impressions in the last two seasons of the IPL. Padikkal and Gaikwad have been successful as openers at the Royal Challengers Bangalore and the Chennai Super Kings respectively, while Rana has been a regular in the top order at the Kolkata Knight Riders for a few seasons, and pacer Sakariya made an impressive start to his stint with the Rajasthan Royals in the truncated 2021 edition.

 

Padikkal became the first Indian to hit four consecutive List A centuries, while opening for Karnataka during the Indian domestic Vijay Hazare 50-over tournament this year. Padikkal, who made his IPL debut with the Royal Challengers in IPL 2020, has 668 runs in 21 IPL matches at an average of 33.40 and a strike rate of 131.75.

Gaikwad, who has a healthy average of 47.87 in List A cricket, has scored five half-centuries in 13 IPL matches. As for Rana, the Knight Riders' regular, he has 13 fifties in the IPL and a total of 1638 runs. He also has three centuries in List A cricket for Delhi in the domestic circuit.

 

Probably the biggest surprise in the squad, though, is Sakariya. The left-arm fast bowler from Saurashtra was bought by the Royals in the auction before the 2021 IPL for INR 1.2 crore (USD 164,000 approx.), which proved to be an inspired investment. Sakariya, 23, has picked up seven wickets in seven IPL matches so far, and his victims include MS Dhoni, KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu and Rana.

 

The India call-up is bound to be a bittersweet moment for Sakariya, who lost his father to Covid-19 immediately after he returned home once the IPL had been suspended indefinitely in early May.

 

For 32-year-old Gowtham, too, the India call-up means a step up from the fringes. He was included as a reserve bowler during the four-match home Test series against England recently and, during that series, he captured the headlines when he became the most expensive uncapped Indian player in the IPL when the Super Kings paid INR 9.25 crore (US$ 1,273,000 approx.) for him, beating bids from the Sunrisers Hyderabad and the Knight Riders. In the 2020 IPL, too, Gowtham had bagged a massive sum from the Punjab Kings (then Kings XI Punjab), who released him after the season after fielding him in just two matches. Gowtham has 57 wickets in 35 List A matches for Karnataka and has a batting strike rate of 141.26 in List A and 159.24 in T20s respectively.

 

The squad also features spinner Varun Chakravarthy, who has been picked for the third time by the selectors since the 2020 IPL. Chakravarthy, who plays for the Knight Riders, had been selected for the T20I series in Australia last year but did not travel because of a shoulder injury, and was again picked for the home T20I series against England earlier this year, but failed to clear the mandatory fitness test.

 

The pair of Shreyas Iyer and T Natarajan were not considered for selection as they are both still recovering from surgeries. Iyer had hurt his shoulder during the ODI series against England and had undergone surgery in April, which had ruled him out of the IPL. Natarajan, who made a fairy-tale debut in Australia in all three formats at the turn of the year, had to abandon the IPL to undergo knee surgery.

 

Squad: Shikhar Dhawan (capt), Bhuvneshwar Kumar (vice-capt), Prithvi Shaw, Devdutt Padikkal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Suryakumar Yadav, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Nitish Rana, Ishan Kishan (wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Yuzvendra Chahal, Rahul Chahar, K Gowtham, Krunal Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy, Deepak Chahar, Navdeep Saini, Chetan Sakariya

 

Net bowlers: Ishan Porel, Sandeep Warrier, Arshdeep Singh, R Sai Kishore, Simarjeet Singh

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[Kool_SRG]

[Kool_SRG]

Rahul Dravid: Winning series against Sri Lanka the priority

Coach says even if younger players don't get game-time, tour will be a great learning opportunity

 

Rahul Dravid, India's head coach for their limited-overs tour of Sri Lanka, is clear that their main objective is to win the series, and not necessarily just look to help players gain experience and match time, a method he has implemented with great success at the India A and India U-19 levels.

 

"There are a lot of people in the squad who are pushing for places ahead of the T20 World Cup coming up, but the key goal, and we've had discussions around it, is to try and win the series," Dravid said on Sunday, ahead of the team's departure to Colombo for three ODIs and three T20Is.

 

"That is the primary objective. Hopefully if people can get the opportunity to put in some good performances in the course of us trying to win the series, they will give themselves the best chance of knocking on the doors of the selectors."

Tour objectives aside, Dravid encouraged the younger players to soak in the experience of being part of an Indian team on an overseas tour, and not treat the tour as a life-and-death situation. The message is: "Good performances will be great, but a few off days won't mean the end of the world."

 

"There are a lot of young kids, even if they don't play, it's a great opportunity to be on a trip with the Indian team and interact with seniors like Shikhar (Dhawan, the captain), Bhuvneshwar (Kumar, the vice-captain), Hardik (Pandya)," Dravid said. "There's a lot they can learn from that experience. The young boys coming on this trip, they'll all be keen to do well and set some sort of markers for the selectors.

 

"Whether they get selected for the T20 World Cup or not, that's a call the selectors will take, but being on a tour like this and playing against an international quality opposition, if you're able to put a marker and show the ability to do it at this level, the selectors will start to take note. But by no means is it a life and death kind of a situation. It doesn't mean if you don't have a good tour, you won't make it, or if you have a great tour, you'll be an automatic pick. There's a lot that goes into it."

Much of the team's plans, Dravid said, will be finalised after he has a set of chats with the Indian team management that is currently in England for a five-Test series. As such, the upcoming three T20Is in Sri Lanka will be India's only games in the format ahead of the T20 World Cup in October-November. Prior to that, though, most of the players, will feature in the remainder of IPL 2021 in the UAE.

 

"These are the only three games before the T20 World Cup and I am sure the selectors and management would have a fair idea by now on the squad they are looking for. There is going to be an IPL as well in the lead-up to the T20 World Cup," Dravid said. "This gives a few people an opportunity for the one or two places the team management or the selectors may be looking for, and give them a few more options. That would be the goal for the next three T20s.

 

"There are a couple of selectors travelling with us, so it gives me a chance to interact with them and see what they are thinking, what their ideas are. I've had a little bit of contact with the team management in England, but I didn't want to disturb them during the WTC, but I will touch base over the next couple of weeks and see what their thoughts are, what they are thinking about the T20 World Cup and see if we can implement some of those plans for the next three games."

 

Asked to explain if such a multi-format arrangement, where India have one set of players competing in a Test series and another playing elsewhere in white-ball cricket, is the way forward, Dravid underlined the importance of being practical in a post-pandemic world.

"This is a unique situation in terms of quarantines and rules that have led to this situation," Dravid said. "It's very hard to predict what will happen even on a month-on-month basis. With quarantines as structured as they are and travel restricted, at least in the short term this plan allows you to complete tours and engagements.

 

"India probably had no option for this tour. I'm not sure if it is a long-term solution though, because there are many more stakeholders involved: other boards, broadcasters, sponsors, media rights. Certainly, in the short term, this could ease pressure because it's becoming difficult for the same set of players to go through all the restrictions in place to play all formats. So yes, in the short term a good idea but for the long term, it'll need lot more discussions."

 

The Dhawan-led squad will land in Colombo early on Monday, following which the team will undergo three days of hard quarantine before beginning training in a controlled manner as per guidelines laid out by Sri Lanka Cricket. The tour begins with the ODI series (July 13, 16 and 18) followed by the T20Is (July 21, 23 and 25). All matches will be played at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo.

[Kool_SRG]

TOUCH DOWN IN SRILANKA

 

 

 

[Kool_SRG]

The joy of getting out of quarantine

[BattalaSathi]

21 minutes ago, Kool_SRG said:

Test lu enduku pettaledho?

[argadorn]

adhi england lo 200 kuda cheyatledhu ...india medha 260 chesthadhi manollu adhi kotti 2-1 tho series win avutharu .... top performer devdut pshaw and dhawan

[Rabbo]

Srilanka team is worst now 

[mmharshaa]

11 minutes ago, argadorn said:

adhi england lo 200 kuda cheyatledhu ...india medha 260 chesthadhi manollu adhi kotti 2-1 tho series win avutharu .... top performer devdut pshaw and dhawan

thigh slapping and moustache twirling chestaru manollu eee series kotti... eee garvam antha talaki ekki england series tella sunnam kottinchukuntaru

[argadorn]

Just now, mmharshaa said:

thigh slapping and moustache twirling chestaru manollu eee series kotti... eee garvam antha talaki ekki england series tella sunnam kottinchukuntaru

overseas lo mana win antaru srilanka tho gelcihi ... england series lo manamu win ayye chance undhi .. vallu rotation ani manchi players ni kurchopeduthunaru ...letsee how it goes ... 

[CuteDesiGal]

2 minutes ago, mmharshaa said:

thigh slapping and moustache twirling chestaru manollu eee series kotti... eee garvam antha talaki ekki england series tella sunnam kottinchukuntaru

No sambandham man england series diff team srilanka tour diff team. To be frank inka kasi ga aadatharu ledhante mee kante pilla bachas better ani troll chestharu

[CuteDesiGal]

1 minute ago, argadorn said:

overseas lo mana win antaru srilanka tho gelcihi ... england series lo manamu win ayye chance undhi .. vallu rotation ani manchi players ni kurchopeduthunaru ...letsee how it goes ... 

i dont think so joe root gadu statement ichadu rotation pakkana petti best 11 ni team lo thesukuntam ani

[argadorn]

1 minute ago, CuteDesiGal said:

i dont think so joe root gadu statement ichadu rotation pakkana petti best 11 ni team lo thesukuntam ani

yup its very bad ... rotation ani test championship kud abokketaru vallu ...  butler ki chace kuda estahleru