IND vs SL: ‘Great honour for me to be captain of the Indian team,’ says Shikhar Dhawan


IND vs SL: ‘Great honour for me to be captain of the Indian team,’ says Shikhar Dhawan

Shikhar Dhawan

The Indian team had recently announced opening batsman Shikhar Dhawan as the skipper for the upcoming limited-overs series against Sri Lanka. India’s regular white-ball cricket captain Virat Kohli and vice-captain Rohit Sharma are currently in the UK ahead of the five-match Test series against England.

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Dhawan, alongside the coach for the SL tour, Rahul Dravid addressed the pre-series press conference before departing for the island nation. The 35-year-old expressed his excitement to lead the senior team for the first time in his international career. The veteran cricketer also said that he’s looking forward to working again with Dravid.

“It’s a great honour for me to be captain of the Indian team. I am looking forward to it. I’ve played under Rahul Dravid’s coaching once for India A. We sync together really well and are looking forward to the Sri Lanka series. We’ll build a lot of positive things. The aim is to build a happy environment,” Shikhar Dhawan said in the pre-departure press conference.

‘Everybody is confident of doing well in the series’: Dhawan

Shikhar Dhawan and Rahul Dravid
Shikhar Dhawan and Rahul Dravid

Shikhar Dhawan highlighted that there is positivity, excitement and confidence in the team. 

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“This is a very good team. There is positivity, confidence in our team and everybody is confident that we will do well. There is a lot of excitement. It is a new challenge but at the same time, it is a great opportunity for all of us to show our talent. 

“Everybody is waiting (for the tour to begin). 13-14 days have passed since we are in quarantine, so the players are waiting when we can hit the ground and we have 10-12 days for preparation. The team is a nice blend of experience and youth,” added Shikhar Dhawan.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had announced a 20-member squad for the three ODIs and three T20Is. The tour is set to begin from July 13 at the R. Premadasa International Cricket Stadium, Colombo.

Indian Squad: Shikhar Dhawan (C), Prithvi Shaw, Devdutt Padikkal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Suryakumar Yadav, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Nitish Rana, Ishan Kishan (WK), Sanju Samson (WK), Yuzvendra Chahal, Rahul Chahar, K Gowtham, Krunal Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy, Bhuvneshwar Kumar (VC), Deepak Chahar, Navdeep Saini, Chetan Sakariya

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Net bowlers: Ishan Porel, Sandeep Warrier, Arshdeep Singh, Sai Kishore, Simarjeet Singh

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