After India’s mixed Bangladesh tour in terms of results, their next assignment entails a white-ball series at home against Sri Lanka. India lost the ODI series but won the Test series against Bangladesh. However, there are some glaring problems that India needs to address and they would be hoping to utilize this India vs Sri Lanka series to their advantage.
The squads of India for the India vs Sri Lanka series have been announced. One of the major exclusions includes Rishabh Pant. The 25-year-old cricketer has been excluded from both the ODI and T20I squads of India and that raised a few alarm bells.
Pant has been the backbone of the batting department of India in the Test format. He was also India’s first-choice wicket-keeper batter across all formats for a very long time. However, his stocks have fallen in the white-ball format and he averages only 21.35 in T20Is and 37.33 in ODIs in 2022.
His poor form in white-ball cricket could be one of the reasons why the selectors decided to drop him from the India vs Sri Lanka series.
However, the other reason could be the slight niggle in his knee. Pant had suffered a knee injury and will now be reporting to the National Cricket Academy (NCA) on 3rd January 2023, according to a report.
Rishabh Pant will be undergoing rehabilitation and strength training will be a part of that program. It is expected that Pant will be spending at least 15 days at the NCA in Bengaluru. This is why he missed out on the India vs Sri Lanka series squads.
Rishabh Pant is expected to be back for the India vs New Zealand series which will commence on 18th January 2023.
India’s T20I squad for series vs Sri Lanka
Hardik Pandya (Captain), Ishan Kishan (wk), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shubman Gill, Suryakumar Yadav (VC), Deepak Hooda, Rahul Tripathi, Sanju Samson, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Harshal Patel, Umran Malik, Shivam Mavi, Mukesh Kumar.
India’s ODI squad for series vs Sri Lanka
Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Hardik Pandya (VC), Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Umran Malik, Arshdeep Singh.
Also read: IND vs SL: BCCI name White-ball Squads, Shikhar Dhawan Dropped From ODI Squad
