The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will send a second-string squad for a limited-overs series against Sri Lanka in July while the main squad will be in the UK. As we dwell over the composition of the squad, former India cricketer Deep Dasgupta has named two captaincy contenders in that series.

The current crop of players will be flying to the UK later this month for the World Test Championship final and the five-match Test series against England. In the wake of it, the selectors will pick a parallel squad after BCCI President Sourav Ganguly confirmed a limited-overs series against Sri Lanka.

Dhawan, Bhuvneshwar frontrunners to lead India – Deep Dasgupta

While a few names have started to surface, former India cricketer Deep Dasgupta has named Shikhar Dhawan and Bhuvneshwar Kumar as the frontrunners. In a chat on Sports Today, Dasgupta opined on the captaincy situation in the absence of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli and feels one between Dhawan and Bhuvneshwar fit the bill.

“Obviously, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul are not available. The senior-most player available in that side is Shikhar, so Shikhar (captaincy option) I guess,” Dasgupta said.

“One of the questions was ‘who do I see captaining the side?’, I mentioned Shikhar, let’s not forget, if Bhuvneshwar is fit and ready to play, he is a good captain candidate as well for that series,” he added.

While there has been an uproar among the fans after selectors left out Bhuvneshwar Kumar from the Test squad, Deep Dasgupta saw it coming. The former wicket-keeper batsman feels the pacer’s body isn’t quite ready to bear the workload of Test cricket yet.

“I am not surprised. They have already got 6 fast bowlers (for England tour). I understand that those conditions might help Bhuvneshwar but he has not played red-ball cricket for 2 to 2 and half years. And he has struggled with his fitness post-2018,” he said.