Shikhar Dhawan is set to lead Team India for the first time in his career during the country's tour of Sri Lanka next month. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), on Thursday, announced a 20-member squad for India's white-ball tour of the island nation. Dhawan was appointed India captain in absence of the regular skipper Virat Kohli and his deputy Rohit Sharma. Reacting to the news, the southpaw shared a picture of himself in India's blue jersey and expressed his delight. "Humbled by the opportunity to lead my country. Thank you for all your wishes," Dhawan captioned the picture on Twitter.
His fans were excited to hear about the news and extended their greetings in the comments section.
"CongratulationsGabbar. We are so excited to see you as a captain. All the best Gabbar," a Twitter user said.
"Wishing u Good Luck Gabbar," wrote another user along with fire and blue-heart emoji.
"I wasn't too excited about the Sri Lanka tour. Now, with you captaining and Dravid mentoring, this makes a must-watch. Go Gabbar, Go!! Nothing less than 6-0. All the best," wrote another fan of the Delhi Capitals (DC) batsman.
"CongratulationsAnna... Bring the trophy home," wrote another follower of Dhawan.
"Well deserved captaincy Shikhar," said a fan on Twitter.
India's tour of Sri Lanka consists of six games -- three One-day Internationals (July 13, 16, 18) and three T20 Internationals (July 21, 23, 25).
Former Indian skipper and National Cricket Academy (NCA) director Rahul Dravid has been named coach for the tour. Ace seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar has been named Dhawan's deputy.
Ruturaj Gaikwad, Nitish Rana, Devdutt Padikkal, K Gowtham, and Chetan Sakariya have earned their maiden call-ups in the national team.
India squad for Sri Lanka tour: Shikhar Dhawan (capt), Bhuvneshwar Kumar (vice-capt), Prithvi Shaw, Devdutt Padikkal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Suryakumar Yadav, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Nitish Rana, Ishan Kishan (wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Yuzvendra Chahal, Rahul Chahar, K Gowtham, Krunal Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy, Deepak Chahar, Navdeep Saini, Chetan Sakariya.
Net bowlers: Ishan Porel, Sandeep Warrier, Arshdeep Singh, R Sai Kishore, Simarjeet Singh.