India Squad Announcement For Sri Lanka Tour Live Updates: What seemed a straight forward selection decision in terms of T20I captaincy for India for the Sri Lanka series with Hardik Pandya an automatic choice for led, has now turned out to be a very two-way race between the Mumbai Indians skipper and the MI’s batting lynchpin, Suryakumar Yadav. While contrasting reports have emerged on who could be given the mantle, it is interesting to note that under new head coach Gautam Gambhir the plan is build the core team for the 2026 T20 World Cup and to find a captain for the same. The squad announcement seemed to be taking a while on this very point itself and it is being reported that the selectors are likely to finalise the squad today (Wednesday, 17th July) with 10 days remaining for the Sri Lanka T20I series (27th July) to begin.
Hardik Pandya or Suryakumar Yadav – who will be India’s next T20I captain?
Both Pandya and Suryakumar Yadav have T20I captaincy experience and both are first-choice players in India’s T20I scheme of things. Pandya proved how big of an impact he can have when fully fit as evidenced by his exploits in the T20 World Cup in the Caribbean last month while Suryakumar Yadav continues to be one of the most fearsome T20 batters going around. And while reports have suggested that Pandya is likely to miss out on captaincy owing to his past injury record, that is an argument that may not hold much water considering he has played the IPL 2024 and T20 World Cup without much injury concerns and when it comes to T20Is, he fitness seems not that much of an issue. Yes, if it was regarding ODI captaincy, one could argue on that point, but in T20Is, as Cricketnext has learned, fitness should not be a blocker for Pandya’s captaincy claim.
Also, Gambhir and Suryakumar were part of the KKR dressing room under the former’s captaincy and had given the top-order batter the iconic nickname ‘SKY’. The T20I specialist batter is also considered to be among the most popular members in the dressing room as well.
