The New Year heralds a hectic season in an ODI World Cup year for the Indian men’s cricket team, which embarks on a whirlwind of matches in the first quarter of the year, oscillating between white-ball and red-ball cricket.
First off for the Men in Blue will be a three-match T20I series against neighbors Sri Lanka followed by three 50-over encounters with the same opponents.
With New Zealand set to reach the country in the middle of the month — for three T20Is and as many ODIs — and Australia following suit in February, India will end up playing 6 T20Is, 9 ODIs and four Test matches (all against Australia as part of Border-Gavaskar Trophy) by March end. And a few days after that, the players will get in with their respective franchises for the Indian Premier League, which will end in May.
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India will kick-start the hectic first quarter of the year with a Hardik Pandya-led team taking on Sri Lanka in a three-match T20I series, starting with the first of which will be played at the Wankhede Stadium here on Tuesday. The two teams will meet in Pune (January 5) and Rajkot (January 7) in the remaining two matches of the T20I series.
It will be a crucial match for both India and skipper Hardik Pandya, who will be standing in for Rohit Sharma for the second time this season and will have Suryakumar Yadav as his deputy.
The national selectors have rested senior players like Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and K.L. Rahul and the team management will be testing players for key slots like opener — someone to partner Rohit Sharma as K.L Rahul’s performance in recent times has come under the scanner — a second wicketkeeper and also pace bowlers as seniors like Jasprit Bumrah is still not available as he is recuperating from an injury while Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s performance has been up and down in recent times. Mohammad Siraj, who played the T20I series against New Zealand, has not been included and India would be hoping to blood Shivam Mavi and Mukesh Kumar in one of these matches.
It will be a big test for Hardik Pandya after he caught the eye by leading Gujarat Titans to the IPL 2022 title in a maiden attempt for both the team and the skipper.
Pandya is expected to be named permanent captain of the T20I team and his stock is quite up after leading India to a series win in New Zealand in November 2022. Though it was a short series with one match abandoned due to bad weather and one ending in a tie.
With Rohit set to return as captain for the ODI series, an impressive clean sweep will further bolster his chances of taking up T20I captaincy permanently as the BCCI tries to inject new energy into the squad following the disappointing defeat against England in the T20 World Cup and lessen the burden on Rohit Sharma.
Squads
India (from): Hardik Pandya (Captain), Ishan Kishan (wk), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shubman Gill, Suryakumar Yadav (v-c), Deepak Hooda, Rahul Tripathi, Sanju Samson, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Harshal Patel, Umran Malik, Shivam Mavi and Mukesh Kumar.
Sri Lanka (from): Dasun Shanaka (captain), Pathum Nissanka, Avishka Fernando, Sadeera Samarawickrama (wk), Kusal Mendis, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Charith Asalanka, Dhananjaya de Silva, Wanindu Hasaranga (v-c), Ashen Bandara, Maheesh Theekshana, Chamika Karunaratne, Dilshan Madushanka, Kasun Rajitha, Dunith Wellalage, Pramod Madushan, Lahiru Kumara and Nuwan Thushara.
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