Virat Kohli Rested for Twenty20 Series vs Sri Lanka; Pawan Negi Selected
Virat Kohli was in top form in the recently-concluded limited overs series in Australia. Kohli's place has been given to Delhi spinner Pawan Negi.
Man in form Virat Kohli has been rested for the three-match twenty20 international series against Sri Lanka starting in Pune on February 9. Kohli's place has gone to Delhi's left-arm spinner Pawan Negi as India's selector keep experimenting with team composition ahead of the ICC World twenty20 at home in March-April. (Virat Kohli Replaces Aaron Finch As World No. 1 Batsman in Twenty20s)
Kohli was in tremendous form in the just-concluded limited overs series in Australia. He finished man of the series in the Twenty20 series that India won 3-0. (Virat Kohli's Gesture After My Dismissal Was Not Warranted: Steven Smith)
Kohli's excellent run of form in the just-concluded series against Australia has allowed him to hold on to the status of world's number-one ranked Twenty20 International batsman in the latest rankings.
Twenty-three-year-old Negi has played 56 Twenty20s and has taken 46 wickets. He played for Chennai Super Kings before the former IPL champions were banned for two years.
The India Men's team will play three-match Twenty20 International series starting February 9 while the India women's team is slated to play 3 ODIs and 3 T20Is from February 15, 2016.
T20I Team (Men): MS Dhoni (Captain), Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Manish Pandey, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Jasprit Bumrah, Ashish Nehra, Harbhajan Singh, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Pawan Negi.
T20I (Women): Mithali Raj (Captain), Smriti Mandhana, Veda Krishnamurthy, Harmanpreet Kaur, Anuja Patil, Jhulan Goswami, Shikha Pandey, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Sushma Verma, Poonam Yadav, VR Vanitha, Sneh Rana, Thirushkamini MD, Ekta Bisht, Niranjana Nagarajan.
ODI Team (Women): Mithali Raj (Captain), Smriti Mandhana, Veda Krishnamurthy, Harmanpreet Kaur, Thirushkamini MD, Jhulan Goswami, Shikha Pandey, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Sushma Verma, Poonam Yadav, Deepti Sharma, Punam Raut, R Kalpana, Niranjana Nagarajan, Preeti Bose.