Dhoni rested Virat to lead team India against Sri Lanka

The last couple of weeks have been full of events in and around Indian cricket. First the West Indies team travelled in for a considerably long tour of 5 ODI’s 1 T20I and 3tests. The tour was threatened to be curtailed even before it began due to the extended payment dues to the West Indian players by the WICB. Though they agreed to start but, mid way into the ODI series the players decided they could no longer continue and withdrew from the series after the 4^th ODI.

The BCCI wanted the Indian team to be well prepared ahead of the Australia tour and the World Cup. Thus, they could not just sit and watch the player’s strandled helplessly. The BCCI instantly contacted the Sri Lanka Cricket for organising a quick fix series in India.

The SLC agreed and the Sri Lankan team is expected to fly to India for a 5 ODI series. Team for the first three ODI’s against Sri Lanka was declaired on Tuesday.

The team will be led by young and the man back in form Virat Kohli. MS Dhoni India’s regular skipper and the over burdened wicket-keeper batsman has been rested atleast for the first three ODI’s. So is pacer Bhuveneshwar Kumar who would have been over worked had he been played here. Ashwin makes returning appearance after being rested for the West Indies ODI series.

The team for the initial games looks like:

Virat Kohli (C), Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, Wriddhiman Saha, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Amit Mishra, Murli Vijay, Varun Aaron, Axar Patel

This is a good opportunity for Saha to display his batting and wicket-keeping skills to the selectors. As not many expect Dhoni to continue for long after India are through with the World Cup 2015. Some good runs with the bat could also open up opportunity for a middle order slot for the Bengal batsman.

Young Axar Patel would also be on the radar, if he can impress one and all with his bowling in the series a ticket to Australia is surely insight.

The pace attack looks lot quicker with Shami, Umesh and Aaron all in of whom can clock it well above the 140 kmph mark. Ishant Sharma will find a lot of attention on him as he is the most experienced yet inconsistent among the current lot of faster bowlers.