India vs Sri Lanka: ODI Team To Be Selected On Sunday

The Indian team for the five-match ODI series against Sri Lanka will be selected on Sunday evening. While chief selector MSK Prasad is currently in Sri Lanka to track the performances, the Board of Control for Cricket in India's (BCCI) acting secretary Amitabh Chaudhury is headed for Kandy. Devang Gandhi is in South Africa with the 'A' team. Sarandeep Singh and Gandhi will join the meeting through Skype. The five-match ODI series begins on August 20 at Dambulla and the last one is on September 3 at Colombo.

There were rumours that Virat Kohli wouldn't be playing the ODI series but the Indian captain put all those to rest on Friday. "Who said I am not playing? I don't know where this came from, but I have no problems in playing," Kohli answered to a query on team selection during a press conference. "We (team management and selectors) are going to sit down on selection soon and we certainly have plans in mind and combinations that we want to speak about. So as captain, I am definitely in the thick of things and knowing what to speak to the committee about."

Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh, Kedar Jadhav and Suresh Raina are currently at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru to prove their fitness for the upcoming limited-overs series. If Jadhav is selected, it will give him another chance to consolidate his position in the team. Jasprit Bumrah, who was rested after the Champions Trophy, is likely to be retained.

Manish Pandey, Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant have have good performances recently. It is possible Pandey and Pant might find a place in the national team.

Fully aware of spinners' heavy workload during the ongoing Test series against Sri Lanka, the team management and national selectors may rest Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. It is expected that pacer Mohammed Shami will also be rested from the ODI series as his workload needs to be monitored.

(With inputs from PTI)