India Playing 11 vs Sri Lanka-1st T20I, India tour of Sri Lanka 2024

India takes on Sri Lanka in a three-match T20I series starting with the first T20I in Pallekele on July 27. The match starts at 7 pm IST. All the three T20Is will be played in Pallekele.

Suryakumar Yadav has been named as the new T20I captain of India. This is also Gautam Gambhir's first assignment as the head coach of the Indian team.

After Rohit Sharma's successful tenure as India's T20I captain, the Gaambhir-SKY era is now underway. The squad selected is fairly of India's younger generations who have been proven performers in the IPL in the last two to three seasons.

Abhishek Sharma and Ruturaj Gaikwad are the two major omissions from India's previous series against Zimbabwe. Sanju Samson and Rishabh Pant continue to be the two keeper-batters for India in T20Is. Hardik Pandya too is part of the T20I side. However, he is no longer the vice-captain of the side.

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The bowling group will see Mohd Siraj lead the attack in Jasprit Bumrah's absence. Arshdeep Singh Khaleel Ahmed, Ravi Bishnoi, Washington Sundar, and Axar Patel make up the bowling group. In this article, we predict India's probable playing XI for the first T20I against Sri Lanka.

India Playing 11 vs Sri Lanka-1st T20I, India tour of Sri Lanka 2024

Yashasvi Jaiswal

Jaiswal will open the batting for India. He opened the batting in the previous series against Zimbabwe as well. He is one of the few batters with centuries across three formats for India.

Shubman Gill

Gill will open the batting with Jaiswal. He led India in the previous series against Zimbabwe. He is also among Indian batters with centuries across formats. The right-hander was elevated to vice-captaincy in this series.

Rishabh Pant (WK)

Pant will slot in at three. He batted at three in the T20 World Cup as well. He will be chosen over Samson who scored a fifty in his last T20I innings. It will be interesting to see if both can play in the XI.

Suryakumar Yadav (C)

SKY will slot in at four. He is the new T20I captain for India. The selector preferred him over Hardik Pandya as they thought he would be available to play all the matches. He is also India's third-highest T20I run-getter after Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.

Hardik Pandya

Pandya will slot in at five. He was also part of India's World Cup-winning side and put in his all-round performances. The biggest challenge for him not to play consistently for India will be to remain injury-free.

Rinku Singh

Rinku can slot in at six. He has played as a finisher for India in this format and played his role to perfection. In his first 20 matches for India, he has maintained a strike rate of 176 and has hit 26 sixes already.

Axar Patel

Patel will slot in at seven, After his consistent performances with bat and ball throughout the World Cup, it is very hard for the management to drop him. He is being seen as an ideal replacement for Ravindra Jadeja in the format.

Washington Sundar

Sundar was the Man of the Series against Zimbabwe with 8 wickets to his name. He should be included in the XI and given a consistent run at least on the T20I side. He will slot in at eight.

Mohd Siraj

Siraj will lead the bowling attack in the absence of Jasprit Bumrah. He likes playing against Sri Lanka and will look to replicate his past performances against them.

Arshdeep Singh

Arshdeep Singh will pair up with Siraj. He finished with 17 wickets in the T20 World Cup and is now a very transformed bowler and experienced as well. He has already picked up 79 wickets in the format and bowers with the most T20I wickets for India.

Ravi Bishnoi

Bishnoi concludes the likely XI for India. He played in the Zimbabwe series and will now play against Sri Lanka as well. Selectors are interested in giving him a longer rope to him ahead of Yuzvendra Chahal.

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