The Indian cricket team may have lost the chance to win the T20 World Cup 2022 but it ended the year on a high by whitewashing the two-match test series against Bangladesh. Though the win in the second test match was not a convincing one as Bangladeshi bowlers made it very difficult for the Indian team to chase a small target of 145 runs, there was a time when the Indian side was reeling at the score of 74/7 but Shreyas Iyer (29) and Ravichandran Ashwin (42) ensured that their team neither lost any more wicket nor lost the match.
While R Ashwin was adjudged as the Player of the Match, the Player of the Series award was given to senior Indian cricketer Cheteshwar Pujara.
The Indian team will start its 2023 with white ball series against Sri Lanka at home as India and Sri Lanka are scheduled to play 3 T20Is and the same number of ODIs. The first T20I will be played on January 3 at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai, and after Sri Lanka, India will be clashing against New Zealand and Australia at home.
As Rohit Sharma won’t be fit by then, Hardik Pandya will be leading the T20I team and as per some reports, the BCCI has made up mind of making Hardik Pandya permanent skipper of India’s T20I team. While Virat Kohli will be rested for this series, KL Rahul may be dropped as he has been performing poorly consistently and the board members are pretty sure that his T20I days are over now.
KL Rahul got criticized for his performance in the ICC T20 World Cup 2022 as well, though he scored fifties against minnows yet he failed in important matches. In the recently concluded test series against Bangladesh also, he failed in making any impact with bat. Other than this, KL Rahul and Rahul Dravid were slammed for dropping Kuldeep Yadav in the second test match despite the fact that he was the Player of the Match in the first test match and the pitch was also helpful for the spinners.
As per a source, the old selection committee will be selecting the team for the Sri Lankan series and the BCCI has asked them to select a specialist T20I squad for the series.
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