Team India is all set to tour Sri Lanka for the white-ball series. India will be led by Shikhar Dhawan and his deputy Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Rahul Dravid has been appointed as coach for the tour in absence of Head coach Ravi Shastri.

Fans and experts have already started making their predictions regarding the playing XI of the Indian team. Former Indian cricketer VVS Laxman joined the party and named his playing XI for the tour.

While discussing the Indian ODI line-up on Star sports, Laxman revealed his choices for batsmen, bowlers, and all-rounders. VVS Laxman stated:

“Well, it’s a very detailed squad, a 20-man squad. But I will go with Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, the No.3 batsman would be Suryakumar Yadav. At No.4 will be Sanju Samson in ODIs, No.5 will be Manish Pandey, at No.6 I will go with Hardik Pandya, No.7 Krunal Pandya.”

So Laxman’s team didn’t comprise of Wicketkeeper Batsman Ishan Kishan, Opener Devdutt Padikkal. Also, Nitish Rana and Ruturaj Gaikwad failed to make it to the lineup selected by VVS.

Bowling unit of VVS Laxman

Laxman selected the swing bowling duo of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Deepak Chahar. Also, two wrist spinners made it to the Veteran batsman’s ODI XI. Laxman stated

“I will have two fast bowlers in Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Deepak Chahar and two spinners will be Kuldeep and Chahal. This is my ODI XI.”

Irfan Pathan also agreed with Laxman’s playing XI but made one little change in the team. With the reports coming out Hardik Pandya is likely to bowl, Pathan picked him in the squad. However, instead of picking Krunal Pandya, he went with Nitish Rana as an extra batsman in the playing XI.

“Only one change I would like, Hardik Pandya is bowling, so I will have him as an all-rounder, one more batsman I will add – Nitish Rana in place of Krunal. Apart from that same, because I will like to see Hardik Pandya bowl quite a few number of overs.”

Bowlers like Navdeep Saini, Chetan Sakariya, Rahul Chahar, Krishnappa Gowtham, and Varun Chakravarthy failed to get their name in the ODI line-up suggested by veteran cricketers.

---