Ind-SL ODIs: India can well excel without Virat Kohli also

Sanjay Bhatnagar

Lucknow: Will India miss or not the absence of Virat Kohl in the coming One Day International cricket series against Sri Lanka starting this Sunday? The answer is big 'NO'.

India is surely going to miss the cracking form of captain Virat Kohli but not to a great extent given the resilience of Indian batting line up which has come to the fore in the recent times. Rohit Sharma, the stop gap skipper in the absence of Virat, is already in the top form and strength of the team could be gauged by the presence of likes of Manish Pandey and Kedar Jadhav.

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The potent domestic cricket system in India coupled with some effective rotation policy has produced some wonderful results in the last few years. The same momentum is likely to be maintained in the coming series despite the late surge of islanders in the last Test match.

Shikhar Dhawan also produced some fine cricket and 'form is temporary while the class is permanent' cricket dictum goes well with Ajinkya Rahane who is also certain to get included in the eleven, largely because Virat Kohli is not in the side. Also, Virat's absence provides some elbow room for the team management to try Manish Pandey, Jadhav and talented Shreyas Iyer for a sustained period.

It also presents a great opportunity for Rohit to display his captaining skills and the ability to bind the team in the manner so that it does not miss Virat Kohli more. It was not a very long ago when the entire country was not willing to accept the loss of legendary Sachin Tendulkar but Virat fitted in the scheme of things, nobody could have imagined. Same equation applies to the current team as well.

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The bowling department is also replete with the bowlers like Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav, who was unlucky to miss out for South Africa tour. Besides, India has an ace up its sleeve in all-rounder Hardik Patel, who, many believe, should have got included in Test series against Sri Lanka. Bumrah and Bhuvnesh are also the assets in ODIs as was witnessed in the last series against New Zealand while experience of great Dhoni will come handy for the hosts.

Indian team for ODIs:

Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik, MS Dhoni (WK), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Siddarth Kaul.