Indian former cricketers VVS Laxman and Irfan Pathan picks their playing XI for the upcoming Sri Lanka vs India series.
VVS Laxman Picks India’s Playing XI
For the first time, India set to play with a parallel team without their stars players likes of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and many other senior players. Apart from this U19 coach Rahul Dravid assigned the role of head coach for the Sri Lanka tour.
Indian cricket fans are very excited to know the probable playing XI for the new India team. Apart from cricket fans, many cricket experts start to pick their playing XI for Team India.
Notably, for many Indian players this Sri Lanka tour acts as their first away series. Indian former cricketer and one of Dravid’s best Test partners VVS Laxman picks his playing XI.
“Well, it’s a very detailed squad, a 20-man squad. But I will go with Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, the No.3 batsman would be Suryakumar Yadav. At No.4 will be Sanju Samson in ODIs, No.5 will be Manish Pandey, at No.6 I will go with Hardik Pandya, No.7 Krunal Pandya. I will have two fast bowlers in Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Deepak Chahar and two spinners will be Kuldeep and Chahal. This is my ODI XI,” Laxman said on Star Sports.
Irfan Pathan Picks India’s Playing XI against Sri Lanka
Former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan, however, went ahead with Nitish Rana as a batsman in the team in place of Krunal Pandya. Irfan said that if Hardik is able to bowl then India have the luxury of picking another batsman.
“Only one change I would like, Hardik Pandya is bowling, so I will have him as an all-rounder, one more batsman I will add – Nitish Rana in place of Krunal. Apart from that same, because I will like to see Hardik Pandya bowl quite a few numbers of overs,” Pathan said.
Sri Lanka vs India ODI Schedule
| S.No. | Date | Match | Venue |
| 1 | 13th July | 1st ODI | Colombo |
| 2 | 16th July | 2nd ODI | Colombo |
| 3 | 18th July | 3rd ODI | Colombo |
Sri Lanka vs India T20I Series
| S.No. | Date | Match | Venue |
| 1 | 21st July | 1st T20I | Colombo |
| 2 | 23rd July | 2nd T20I | Colombo |
| 3 | 25th July | 3rd T20I | Colombo |
India’s squad
Shikhar Dhawan (Captain), Prithvi Shaw, Devdutt Padikkal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Suryakumar Yadav, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Nitish Rana, Ishan Kishan (Wicket-keeper), Sanju Samson (Wicket-keeper), Yuzvendra Chahal, Rahul Chahar, K Gowtham, Krunal Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy, Bhuvneshwar Kumar (Vice-captain), Deepak Chahar, Navdeep Saini, Chetan Sakariya
Net Bowlers
Ishan Porel, Sandeep Warrier, Arshdeep Singh, Sai Kishore, Simarjeet Singh
Also read: India vs Sri Lanka 2021: Angelo Mathews Opt-Out of Tournament, Plans to Retire
