India promotes Pandya, drops Pant for SL series

NEW DELHI: All-rounder Hardik Pandya will lead India’s T20 side at home against Sri Lanka next week after selectors left several heavyweights out of the side.

Selectors have been under pressure to make wholesale changes to India’s white-ball squads after the side’s disappointing T20 World Cup semi-final defeat to England in November.

Sri Lanka’s tour begins with the first of three 20-over matches in Mumbai on January 3 before a three-match ODI series from January 10-15.

Out-of-form wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant has been dropped from both white-ball squads.

Ageing superstars Virat Kohli, 34, and Rohit Sharma, 35, were not included for the three-match T20 series but both return for the ODI portion of the tour.

Veteran ODI opener Shikhar Dhawan, 37, who led the team for a three-match series against hosts New Zealand in December, was also dropped from the squad for up-and-coming rookies Shubman Gill and Ishan Kishan.

India squads:

T20Is: Hardik Pandya (capt), Ishan Kishan (wk), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shubman Gill, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Rahul Tripathi, Sanju Samson, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Harshal Patel, Umran Malik, Shivam Mavi, Mukesh Kumar.

ODIs: Rohit Sharma (capt), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Hardik Pandya, Washin- gton Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umran Malik, Arshdeep Singh.