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Gautam Gambhir’s expected appointment as India’s head coach could provide a new lease of life to IPL champion skipper Shreyas Iyer’s international career during the three-match ODI series against Sri Lanka in July-August. Having led Kolkata Knight Riders successfully in the IPL, Iyer could also go for the five-match T20I series against Zimbabwe starting July 5, but the more realistic chance of a comeback is the ODI series against Sri Lanka. Gambhir, who is the front-runner for India coach position, and Iyer forged a successful partnership during KKR’s victorious IPL campaign this year and the talented Mumbai right-hander, who has been a prolific 50-over batter, might finally have fortune favouring him after a few tumultuous months. Gambhir was the mentor of the franchise.
Iyer was dropped from BCCI’s central contracts, along with Ishan Kishan, after he hey fell out with the establishment for his apparent reluctance to play Ranji Trophy.
However, Iyer always maintained that his recurring lower back issue kept him out of the game even though he did play the Ranji Trophy final scoring 90-odd runs.
Currently, a lot of young hopefuls, who have performed in the IPL, are training at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru for five T20Is against Zimbabwe set to be announced some time next week.
“Shreyas is currently not at NCA. Here mostly those players are there, who have performed in the IPL and will be in contention for Zimbabwe selection.
“Abhishek Sharma, Riyan Parag, Mayank Yadav, Harshit Rana, Nitish Reddy, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Yash Dayal are all at the camp. Some will go to Zimbabwe T20Is,” a BCCI source told PTI on conditions of anonymity.
“However, there is every possibility that Shreyas will travel for the three-match ODI series in Sri Lanka. The last ODI that India played was in South Africa and he scored a half-century (52). He had 500 plus runs (530) in World Cup and averages just around 50. Can you drop him?” he added.
It is understood that seniors like Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, along with pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah, will now focus on ODIs and Tests for the remainder of the season with nine WTC Tests between September 2024 to January 2025.
The schedule includes two home games each against Bangladesh and New Zealand, five away against Australia and the marquee ODI Champions Trophy in Pakistan.
While there will be a lot of new players in T20Is including IPL stars, the likes of Rinku Singh, Shubman Gill, Avesh Khan, and Khaleel Ahmed are also expected to travel to Zimbabwe.
In case Hardik Pandya and Suryakumar Yadav are not rested, they are expected to be the designated captain and vice-captain for the tour although both have been playing constantly since the start of the IPL.
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