Colombo [Sri Lanka], July 31 (ANI): The Indian men’s team began their preparations for their upcoming ODI series against Sri Lanka, which will kick off on Friday at the R Premadasa Stadium.
Stalwart batter Virat Kohli and captain Rohit Sharma have already touched down in Sri Lanka to link up with the Indian team.
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Kohli was spotted having a laugh with head coach Gautam Gambhir during the training session. ‘Chinaman’ spinner Kuldeep Yadav wore pads and gloves for batting practice.
Notably, Gambhir and Kohli have had spats in the past during the IPL but seemingly mended fences during IPL 2024. Gambhir recently replaced Rahul Dravid as the coach of the Indian team.
KL Rahul donned the gloves and brushed up on his wicketkeeping skills. Shreyas Iyer was also present during the training session.
Before the ODI series, the Pallekele International Stadium hosted the T20I leg of the series, while the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo is getting to host the 50-over matches. The three ODIs will be held on August 2, August 4, and August 7.
India wrapped up the three T20Is by securing wins in all three of them. Under the new era of Gautam Gambhir and captain Suryakumar Yadav, India’s tour of Sri Lanka started on July 27 with the T20I series, with India securing a 43-run win. In the second T20I, India secured a seven-wicket victory in a rain-affected match.
The third T20I was a nail-biting finale as Suryakumar and Rinku Singh turned out to be the unlikely heroes with the ball for the visitors, and Washington Sundar applied the finishing touches in all departments to seal off a win in the Super Over in the third T20I.
When Sri Lanka needed nine runs off 12 balls while chasing 138, Suryakumar Yadav gambled on Rinku Singh, and he delivered when the situation demanded it most.
In a single over, Rinku sent set-batter Kusal Perera (46) and then Ramesh Mendis (3) back to the dugout to bring the equation down to six runs in six balls.
Suryakumar took the ball in his hand and claimed two wickets in a row, bringing the equation down to three runs on the final ball. Chamindu Wickramasinghe picked up a double on the final ball to take the game to the Super Over.
Washington Sundar weaved magic, gave away two runs, and removed Kusal Mendis and Nissanka to restrict Sri Lanka to two runs.
Surykuamar pulled off a sweep to find the fence to complete the whitewash over Sri Lanka in the T20Is.
In the upcoming ODI series, Rohit and Kohli are coming back in Indian colours after leading Men in Blue to a memorable seven-run against South Africa in the final of the ICC T20 World Cup in Barbados on June 29.
Rohit also ended the tournament with a career-best performance with the bat, with 257 runs in eight games at an average of 36.71 and a strike rate of over 156. His best score was 92 and he scored three half-centuries in the competition to become the second-highest run-getter.
Rohit’s last ODI was a heartbreaking loss to Australia in the final of the ICC Cricket World Cup at Ahmedabad last year in November.
The Indian skipper is 291 runs away from becoming the fourth Indian to get 11,000 ODI runs and just 60 runs from overtaking former batter and head coach Rahul Dravid to become the fourth-highest run-getter for India in ODIs. Currently, Rohit has scored 10,709 runs in 262 matches at an average of 49.12, with 31 centuries, 55 fifties and the best score of 264.
Kohli has a whopping 14,797 runs in 292 ODI matches at an average of 58.7. He has the most hundreds in the format, with a whopping tally of 50.
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, Mohd. Siraj, Washington Sundar, Arshdeep Singh, Riyan Parag, Axar Patel, Khaleel Ahmed, Harshit Rana. (ANI)
