New Delhi: The suspense surrounding India’s squad and captain for the Sri Lanka tour is finally over. The BCCI announced the ODI and T20I squads for Gautam Gambhir’s first assignment as India coach, which will be the white-ball tour of the Island Nation later this month. There were plenty of surprise inclusions and exclusions in both the squads.
The Indian Cricket Board drew a lot of flack for Ruturaj Gaikwad’s exclusion from both squads while snubbing Sanju Samson from the ODI squad angered the cricket fans. Though, there were some positives as well including the return of Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul in the 50-over format team and Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli’s inclusion for the ODI leg of the tour.
The biggest surprise was BCCI’s decision to snub Hardik Pandya for the leadership role in T20I cricket in favour of Suryakumar Yadav. Despite being the vice-captain of India’s T20 World Cup-winning team, Pandya was not trusted for the leadership role in the shortest format of international cricket.
Meanwhile, Kohli was included in the ODI squad despite doubts over his availability for the tour. The star batter is enjoying a much-needed break from cricket by spending some quality time with his family in London.
Fireworks expected as Gambhir and Kohli set to work together?
The much-publicised altercations between Gambhir and Kohli in the IPL raised question marks over their equation in the Indian cricket team set-up. Gambhir and Kohli have been involved in numerous on-field tussles over the years with the latest being during a match between Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Lucknow Super Giants in IPL 2023.
But the reputation of the Indian team on stake, Kohli, according to a report in Cricbuzz, is ready to set the differences aside and work together with the Indi coach for the greater good of the team. The report states that Kohli has told the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) that his disputes with Gambhir in the past aren’t going to impact their working relationship in the Team India set-up.
How will their past differences impact the working relationship of star batter Virat Kohli and head coach Gautam Gambhir in Team India set-up? Cricket Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
