New Delhi: With yet another hectic season of cricket beckoning the Indian players, chief selector Sandip Patil and his team had a closed door meeting in Mumbai on Thursday to pick up the squad for the upcoming Sri Lankan tour.
For the three-Test series in Sri Lanka that begins from August 12, there are no surprises in the team selected. Virat Kohli will be steering the side as expected. There are six specialist batsmen — Virat Kohli himself, Shikhar Dhawan, Murali Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane and Rohit Sharma. Young gun KL Rahul, who missed the Bangladesh tour, found himself a place as the 7th batsman.
Wriddhiman Saha was an obvious option as first wicket-keeper, with Pujara coming in handy as the back-up option.
The pace battery looks good with Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar all set to fire in with their quick ones. Varun Aaron would be raring to go, too. The spin department will be managed by Harbhajan Singh, Ravichandran Ashwin as Mishra would become India’s third spinner.
Squad:Â Virat Kohli (captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Murali Vijay, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma, Wriddhiman Saha, Harbhajan Singh, Ravichandran Ashwin, Umesh Yadav, Varun Aaron, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Amit Mishra