Indian squad for upcoming T20 series against Sri Lanka at home starting from 9th February has been announced.

Virat Kohli rested for T20 series against Sri Lanka

Pawan Negi the young left arm spinner and lower order batsman got his maiden call up to India side after impressive performance for Chennai Super Kings in IPL and Delhi in Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.  Negi has picked 46 wickets in 56 T20 matches at an average of 26.28 with a decent economy rate of 7.42. Apart from his bowling Negi has impressed with his batting skills. He has scored 479 runs at an impressive strike rate of 134.92. His inclusion in the team in the place of Axar Patel clearly shows India want to try various options before World Cup. Indian batting hero from the last ODI in Australia, the young Karnataka batsman also get call up in the Indian team. His match winning Maiden ODI century pushed must have pushed selectors to include him. Bhuvneshwar Kumar who missed out recent T20 series against Australia due to injury was also retained in the 15 member squad.

Virat Kolhi was rested after the brilliant tour of Australia, this may give chance to players like Manish Pandey, Suresh Raina and Yuvraj Singh to bat up in the order and spent some time in the middle and score big runs and gain confidence before major ICC events. India would also be looking to test Hardik Pandya with bat. Pandya considers himself as batting all-rounder and it would interesting to see what role he plays in the T20 squad.

India is due to play three match T20 series against Sri Lanka. Pune will host the 1st T20 on 9th February (Tuesday), followed by 2nd T20 at Ranchi on 12th February (Friday) and 3rd T20 at Vishakhapatnam (Vizag) on Sunday (14th February). All the match will be played as evening games, starting at 7pm IST or 1.30pm GMT.

T20 squad: 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 and Pawan Negi.

Tags: India, Pawan Negi, Pune, Ranchi, Sri Lanka, T20 Series, Virat Kolhi, Vishakhapatnam, Vizag