India's Playing 11 for Sri Lanka T20I series. Aakash Chopra Predicts

India Playing 11 for Sri Lanka T20I series: With big stars like Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja busy with the Test team in England, there will be many fresh names in the India squad for the upcoming white-ball tour to Sri Lanka scheduled in July. Team India will play a total of 3 ODIs and as many T20I matches starting from July 13 and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is likely send a squad comprising of white-ball specialists to Sri Lanka. Recently, the cricketer turned commentator Aakash Chopra picked his playing 11 for the upcoming three-match T20I series against Sri Lanka.

Aakash Chopra predicts India playing 11

Aakash Chopra has raised a lot of eyebrows by not including senior opener Shikhar Dhawan in the India playing 11 for the three T20Is against Sri Lanka. Dhawan has done incredibly well for the Delhi Capitals (DC) in the last two Indian Premier League (IPL) editions as he scored more than 600 runs in 2020 and the left-hander was also the leading run-getter with 380 runs in 8 games before the postponement of the tournament. Aakash instead went ahead with the youngster duo of Prithvi Shaw and Devdutt Padikkal as his two openers for the T20Is in the Island nation. Both these youngsters have performed excellently well in the recent IPL and the domestic season.

“In T20s, I really want to give a chance to somebody who I would want to invest in the future,” said Aakash Chopra in a conversation with ESPNcricinfo.

After doing exceedingly well during their debut T20I innings for India, the duo of Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan will play in the middle-order in Chopra’s playing 11 for Lanka T20I matches. The former Indian batsman has also picked the trio of Sanju Samson, Hardik Pandya and Krunal Pandya in the eleven to extend the depth in the batting department. Even after a stunning effort in IPL 2021 for Mumbai Indians, Aakash has not picked Rahul Chahar in the playing XI and has instead went ahead with Varun Chakravarthy and Yuzvendra Chahal as the frontline spin options with Deepak Chahar and Bhuvneshwar Kumar as the only two pace bowlers part of the side.

Aakash Chopra’s India Playing 11 for Sri Lanka T20Is
Devdutt Padikkal
Prithvi Shaw
Suryakumar Yadav
Ishan Kishan
Sanju Samson
Hardik Pandya
Krunal Pandya
Varun Chakravarthy
Bhuvneshwar Kumar
Deepak Chahar
Yuzvendra Chahal

SL vs IND

In contrary to Aakash Chopra’s opinion, Shikhar Dhawan is very much likely to be appointed as the stand-in captain of the Indian team for the white-ball tour to Sri Lanka in July. Also, Shreyas Iyer has already been ruled out for the Lanka tour as it will be difficult for him to recover in time from the shoulder injury which he sustained during the ODI series against England back in March.

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