Team India will be playing an ODI for the first time in nearly eight months as the Men in Blue build up towards the ICC Champions Trophy 2025. Since the focus for the Indian team will be on ODIs, the senior pros have returned including Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, who will be in action for the first time since the T20 World Cup triumph. With the T20 days past them in international cricket, both Rohit and Kohli would want to channel all their energies into ODIs and Tests.
KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer, who are not part of the T20 setup for now, have retained their spots in the ODI squad as did only a few from the last time around when India sent a young squad to South Africa for a three-match series last December. Take a look at all the changes in India's ODI squad for the upcoming Sri Lanka series, which kicks off on Friday, August 2 in Colombo.
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Rohit and Kohli, the two senior pros headline the inclusions. Shubman Gill, another member of the ODI World Cup squad last year, too returns as a vice-captain this time around. Rishabh Pant will be playing in ODI for the first time since November 2022 as he has been recalled into the 50-over side. With Hardik Pandya missing, Riyan Parag and Shivam Dube have earned their maiden ODI call-ups as the all-round options in the middle-order.
The remaining three additions are in the bowling department with Mohammed Siraj returning to the ODI side after being rested from the South Africa series with the Test matches to follow last December. Khaleel Ahmed, on the back of a very good IPL season for the Delhi Capitals and a terrific Ranji Trophy for Rajasthan has earned a recall while among the ones to get into the ODI side for the first time is pacer Harshit Rana, who was outstanding for Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL.
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Sanju Samson is the biggest omission considering he was the centurion the last time India played an ODI. It was a young side, which played the ODI series against South Africa, hence the likes of Sai Sudharsan, Rajat Patidar and Tilak Varma, who are not in the ODI scheme of thing at the moment too miss out. Yuzvendra Chahal, who didn't play a single game in the T20 World Cup also misses out while Rinku Singh, like Samson, was the unfortunate one to be left out.
Since three pacers are included, three had to be left out and Mukesh Kumar, Avesh Khan and Akash Deep are the unfortunate ones to not be considered for the series.
India's ODI squad for Sri Lanka series: Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill (VC), Virat Kohli, KL Rahul (WK), Rishabh Pant (WK), Shreyas Iyer, Shivam Dube, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Washington Sundar, Arshdeep Singh, Riyan Parag, Axar Patel, Khaleel Ahmed, Harshit Rana
