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Former Indian cricketer Subramaniam Badrinath lashed out at selectors for ignoring batters Rinku Singh for ODIs and Ruturaj Gaikwad for T20Is in their squad for the Sri Lanka white-ball tour starting from July 21.
India will be led by two different captains for the T20I and ODI legs of the Sri Lanka tour, all set to commence on July 27. With Rohit Sharma having retired from the T20Is, Suryakumar Yadav will lead the side in the shortest format against Sri Lanka. Barring a few changes, the side bears a familiar look to the squad that featured in India's successful ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2024 campaign. The ODI side sees a number of stalwarts, including Rohit and Virat Kohli, return to the setup and the squad looks similar to the 2023 50-over World Cup squad, which lost to Australia in the final after a dominant 10-match win streak. Speaking on his YouTube channel, Badrinath said that it seems that one needs a "bad boy image" to get selected in the Indian team. "Sometimes it seems like you need a bad guy image when the likes of Rinku Singh, Ruturaj Gaikwad and others are not selected for the Indian team. It seems that you need to be in a relationship with some Bollywood actresses, have a good media manager, and have body tattoos," said Badrinath. Rinku has not been picked up for a packed ODI squad despite his fine performances in T20Is, scoring 416 runs in 15 innings at an average of 83.20 and a strike rate of over 176, with two fifties. He also has a fine List-A record, having scored 1,899 runs in 52 innings at an average of 48.69, with a century and 17 fifties. Gaikwad was snubbed from the T20I squad despite a fine record in the format and consistent performances in the recently concluded five-match series against Zimbabwe. In 20 T20I innings, he has scored 633 runs at an average of 39.56 and a strike rate of 143.53, with a century and four fifties. His best score is 123*. In the series against Zimbabwe, he scored 133 runs in three games at an average of 66.50 and a strike rate of 158.33, with a half-century and best score of 77*. The India's tour of Sri Lanka will start on July 27. The tour will kick- off with a three-match T20I series, followed by a three-match ODI series, which will start on August 2. The Pallekele International Stadium will be hosting the T20I leg of the series while the R Premadasa is getting to host the 50-over matches, as per ESPNCricinfo. The three ODIs will be held on August 2, August 4, and August 7. Both teams will be taking to the field with new head coaches. While legendary all-rounder Sanath Jayasuriya has been named as the interim head coach for the Lankan Lions, this will also be the first assignment for former Indian opener Gautam Gambhir as the head coach, succeeding the T20 World Cup-winning coach Rahul Dravid. India's last tour of Sri Lanka for a bilateral white-ball series came back in July 2021, with Dravid coaching the Shikhar Dhawan-led side. India won the ODI series 2-1, while Sri Lanka secured the T20I series by the same margin. T20I Squad for Sri Lanka series: Suryakumar Yadav (c), Shubman Gill (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rinku Singh, Riyan Parag, Rishabh Pant (wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Khaleel Ahmed, Mohammed Siraj. ODI Squad for Sri Lanka series: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill (vc), Virat Kohli, KL Rahul (WK), Rishabh Pant (wk), Shreyas Iyer, Shivam Dube, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohd. Siraj, Washington Sundar, Arshdeep Singh, Riyan Parag, Axar Patel, Khaleel Ahmed, Harshit Rana. (ANI)
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