New-look T20 squad for Nidahas Trophy: 5 Things to look forward to

India outplayed Proteas in both One Dayers and Twenty 20s, winning by 5-1 and 2-1, respectively.

With ICC majors in the hindsight, BCCI has picked a team with a lot of fresh faces for the upcoming Nidahas Trophy 2018 to be played in Sri Lanka where Bangladesh will be third team in the tri-nation T20I series.

Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav and Hardik Pandya are all given rest after a long testing tour.

Rohit Sharma will lead the side. Shikhar Dhawan is named his deputy.

TEAM: Rohit Sharma (Capt), Shikhar Dhawan (vc), KL Rahul, Suresh Raina, Manish Pandey, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Deepak Hooda, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Vijay Shankar, Shardul Thakur, Jaydev Unadkat, Mohammad Siraj, Rishabh Pant (wk). pic.twitter.com/9l9sTnXOb3

— BCCI (@BCCI) February 25, 2018

Enlisted below are 5 reasons that make Nidahas Trophy all the more watchable.

Reliance on Kohli?

Virat Kohli has been India’s batting mainstay for long now. With him taking a break, seniors Rohit and Shikhar have more responsibility at hand. It would be interesting to see who would put his hand up in Kohli’s absence.

Rohit, limited-over format captain?

Rohit Sharma, who was stand-in skipper in the 3rd T20I in the recently concluded series against SA, has been given the responsibility of leading the Indian side. So far, Rohit has led Team India in 4 Twenty 20 Internationals and has won all four.

Batting blitz

Rishabh Pant and Deepak Hooda are as fearless as Twenty 20 format demands. Both have already given us glimpses of how greater damage these two can afflict. Sure, there would be some fireworks!

Promising all-round talents

Washington Sundar is a tried-and-tested T20 all-rounder in the domestic arena. On the other hand, Vijay Shankar comes in place of Pandya. The bowling all-rounder Sundar was impressive in the one T20 match he played against Sri Lanka at home last year. We hope these two emerge as the finds of the tournament.

New-fangled pace attack

With rest to Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah, there will be a fresh new-ball attack. Shardul Thakur and Jaydev Unadkat will lead the attack, joined by Mohammad Siraj. What do you make of this three-pronged pace battery?