Hardik Pandya to captain India in T20I series against Sri Lanka

Hardik Pandya will captain India for their Twenty20 series against Sri Lanka next month in the absence of Rohit Sharma, who will return for the following one-day internationals, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) said on Tuesday.

India will host Sri Lanka for three T20Is and three ODIs from Jan. 3, with Pandya reprising his role as T20 captain for a second straight series, after leading India to victory over New Zealand in November.

Pandya, who captained the Gujarat Titans to the Indian Premier League title this year in their debut season, will also serve as vice-captain under Rohit for the ODI series.

Rohit missed this month's test series against Bangladesh after sustaining a blow to the thumb during the preceding ODI matches.

Virat Kohli will not feature in the T20I series, while batter Shikhar Dhawan was not included in the ODI squad after scoring just 18 runs across three matches in Bangladesh. Rishabh Pant missed out on both squads.

T20I SQUAD:

Hardik Pandya (capt), Ishan Kishan, 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.

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