Dhawan to lead India on Sri Lanka tour, six uncapped players named in the squad

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has announced the Indian squad for their upcoming tour to Sri Lanka. The Men in Blue are set to play 3 ODIs and as many T20Is on the tour. The team will be without some of the regular members, including skipper Virat Kohli and vice-captain Rohit Sharma, who are in England preparing for the World Test Championship final and a 5 match Test series against England.

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In the absence of Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan will lead the Indian side while Bhuvneshwar Kumar has been named as his deputy. The squad comprises several new faces including Nitish Rana, all-rounder K Gowtham, opening batsman Ruturaj Gaikwad and fast bowler Chetan Sakariya among others. 

 Ishan Porel, Sandeep Warrier, Arshdeep Singh, Sai Kishore and Simarjeet Singh have been named as net bowlers.

Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan, who made a stellar start to their careers have also been named in the squad along with Devdutt Padikkal. The pace attack will comprise Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Navdeep Saini and newcomer Chetan Sakariya while Yuzvendra Chahal, Rahul Chahar and Kuldeep Yadav are front-line spinners. Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya and K Gowtham slot in as all-rounders. Ishan Kishan and Sanju Samson are the two wicketkeepers. 

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The BCCI also revealed the schedule of the series. The ODI series will get underway on July 13, with the remaining two matches to be played on 16 July and 18 July respectively. The T20Is will be played on July 21, 23 and 25. All matches are set to be played at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo.

Squad: Shikhar Dhawan (c), 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, Bhuvneshwar Kumar (vc), Deepak Chahar, Navdeep Saini, Chetan Sakariya.