 The Indian team for the ODIs and the T20Is for the Sri Lankan series has been
announced. And it would be fair to say that there have been quite a few surprises
in the side which has been given out by the selectors.
For starters, and this is not a surprise, the selectors have seen the form
of S. Sreesanth in the test matches - he was the man of the match in the game
at Kanpur with a six wicket haul - and he has been selected in both, the ODIs
and the T20Is. And his selection comes in the place of Ishant Sharma,
who has been given a break from the ODIs, but will play in the T20Is. It remains
to be seen though, whether the selectors give Ishant the break for the all the
five ODIs or will it be only for the first two ODIs, for which the team has
been announced.
However, the bigger surprises in the T20I squads have been the inclusion of
R Ashwin, Ashok Dinda and Sudeep Tyagi. Ashwin is an off-spinner who
has been performing well with both, the bat and the ball in the domestic cricket,
whereas Dinda and Tyagi are both quick bowlers. Tyagi had, in fact, been selected
in the ODIs against Australia and was expected to play in the inconsequential
final game at Mumbai before it was rained off. Dinda had shot into fame with
his hustling and bustling action in the first edition of the IPL for the Kolkata Knight Riders, which had meant that he has been on the fringes of being
selected for some time now.
Munaf Patel has been omitted from the ODIs after being the part of the side
for the Aussie ODIs, as have Praveen Kumar, Zaheer Khan, Irfan Pathan
and Ravindra Jadeja. Pathan has been out of the international scene due to his
injuries and is playing in the domestic circuit to get back, whereas Zaheer Khan has been left out to preserve him for the longer formats of the game.
India will play two T20Is and five ODIs in the series. The T20Is will be held
at Nagpur and Mohali, whereas the five ODIs are going to be played at Rajkot,
Vishakapatnam, Cuttack, Kolkata and Delhi. The T20Is will start at 5.30 pm IST,
whereas all but all the first and the last ODI at Rajkot and Delhi will be day
night games starting at 2.30 pm. The three test matches were played at Ahmedabad,
Kanpur and Mumbai.
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