[Watch] Glimpses of Team India's fun journey to Sri Lanka for their white-ball tour
The Indian men's cricket team arrived in Sri Lanka on Monday, July 22 for a white-ball tour featuring three T20Is and three ODIs. The Men in Blue will play all three T20Is in Pallekele on July 27, July 28 and July 30. The one-dayers will be held in Colombo on August 2, August 4 and August 7.
Ahead of the team's departure for Sri Lanka, new head coach Gautam Gambhir and chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar held a joint press conference. During the press interaction in Mumbai, the duo opened up on various facets of team selection for the Sri Lanka tour.
On Monday night, the official social media handles of BCCI shared a video featuring glimpses of Team India's travel from Mumbai to Sri Lanka for the upcoming white-ball series. The clip featured keeper-batter Rishabh Pant and all-rounder Hardik Pandya posing for pictures with fans and also captured some in-flight interactions between the players. BCCI uploaded the video with the caption:
"Mumbai to Pallekele via Colombo ✈️ 🚌 #TeamIndia have reached Sri Lanka 🇱🇰."
The T20I squad will be led by Suryakumar Yadav instead of Pandya. The latter was the vice-captain during the 2024 T20 World Cup, which India won under Rohit Sharma's captaincy. However, he has not been elevated to the lead role despite Rohit's T20I retirement. Meanwhile, Shubman Gill will be the vice-captain of both the ODI and T20I squad. He was a traveling reserve in the T20 World Cup squad.
What Agarkar said about picking Suryakumar as captain ahead of Pandya for Sri Lanka T20Is
At the press conference ahead of the Indian team's departure for Sri Lanka, chairman of selectors Agarkar was asked about the big decision to name Suryakumar as T20I captain ahead of Pandya. While backing the former to do a good job, the former India pacer admitted that fitness woes hurt Pandya's chances.
"Obviously, you want a captain that is likely to play all the games. We think he's [Suryakumar ] a deserving candidate, over time we'll see how he develops into the role," Agarkar was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz.
"As regards to Hardik, he's still a very important player for us... Fitness obviously has been a challenge for him over the last few years and that then becomes a little bit more difficult for a coach or even us selectors," he added.
Pandya got injured midway through the 2023 ODI World Cup. He made a comeback during IPL 2024 but failed to make much of an impact. The senior all-rounder, however, lifted his game in the 2024 T20 World Cup and was one of the key contributors to Team India's triumph in the ICC event.