India vs Sri Lanka: Jasprit Bumrah included in Rohit Sharma-led ODI squad

Jasprit Bumrah could make his international comeback as early as next week with the senior pacer added to the India squad for the three-match ODI series against Sri Lanka.

Bumrah’s inclusion was confirmed by the BCCI in an official release, which added that the National Cricket Academy had declared him fit, giving him the green signal to join the Men in Blue.

The Mumbai Indians pacer had last featured during India’s T20I series against Australia at home in September, right before the T20 World Cup in Australia. The seamer would get ruled out of the mega-event, in which India got knocked out in the semi-finals following a 10-wicket loss at the hands of eventual champions England.

Bumrah had struggled with his fitness for a majority of 2022; after leading India in the rescheduled fifth Test against England in Birmingham, he started complaining of back trouble during the limited-overs fixtures against the Englishmen.

Read: Timeline of Jasprit Bumrah’s fitness issues

He would later fail to regain fitness in time for the Asia Cup that was shifted to the UAE from Sri Lanka, and was sent to the NCA for rehabilitation.

Team India are set to play their first match of the new year on Tuesday, taking on Sri Lanka in the first of three T20Is in Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium. Pune and Rajkot will host the second and third T20Is respectively. Guwahati (10 January), Kolkata (12 January) and Thiruvananthapuram (15 January) are scheduled to host the three one-dayers against Dasun Shanaka’s men.

While Rohit Sharma continues in his role as the ODI captain in the Sri Lanka series after receiving the BCCI’s backing for the 50-over and five-day formats, he has been overlooked for the T20Is along with fellow seniors Virat Kohli and KL Rahul.

Read: Life beyond Rohit, Test keepers among CAC’s queries for selectors

The board, instead, has opted to go with all-rounder Hardik Pandya as the skipper for the shortest format with an eye on rebuilding the team for the 2024 T20 World Cup.

India’s updated squad for Sri Lanka ODIs: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Hardik Pandya (VC), Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Umran Malik, Arshdeep Singh.

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