Deep Dasgupta Picks Shikhar Dhawan And Bhuvneshwar Kumar As Ideal Candidates To Lead Team India In Sri Lanka

Former Indian stumper-turned commentator, Deep Dasgupta has reckoned that with the likes of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma not available for the upcoming white-ball series against Sri Lanka, Shikhar Dhawan and Bhuvneshwar Kumar are ideal candidates to lead Team India.

With the senior Indian team embarking on a grueling 3.5-month long tour of England next month to feature in the ICC World Test Championship final between June 18-22 before locking horns against hosts England in a five-match Test series, Team India will field a completely different team consisting of white-ball specialists and youngsters during the white-ball tour of Sri Lanka in July.

BCCI President Sourav Ganguly, in a recent interview with Sportstar, revealed the same, post which details emerged that India will be traveling to Sri Lanka to feature in three ODIs and as many T20Is.

With the Covid restrictions in place, it is impossible for the senior Indian cricketers to tour Sri Lanka for the white-ball fixtures and then return back to the UK for the Test series that kicks off at Trent Bridge from August 04.

With Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul and Jasprit Bumrah not available, the senior-most cricketers in the squad will be opener Shikhar Dhawan and pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

While Dhawan is no longer in Test reckoning, Bhuvneshwar Kumar missed out on Test selection due to his recurring injury issues.

“Obvioiusly, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul are not available. The senior-most player available in that side is Shikhar, so Shikhar (captaincy option) I guess,”  Deep Dasgupta said as quoted by India Today.

“One of the questions was ‘who do I see captaining the side?’, I mentioned Shikhar, let’s not forget, if Bhuvneshwar is fit and ready to play, he is a good captain candidate as well for that series,” he added.

Also Read: Reports: Rahul Dravid Likely To Serve As India’s Coach For Sri Lanka Tour