The countdown for the Sri Lanka tour has begun. This tour will start from 27th July. The Indian team's Sri Lanka tour is to begin with a 3-match T20 series. Now obviously the first selection will also be of the T20 team. There is no official information about the announcement of Team India for the Sri Lanka tour, but it is expected that the names of the players can come out anytime now. It is not a claim but it is believed that Shubman Gill, the batsman who scored the most runs in the T20 series played on the Zimbabwe tour, may be dropped from Team India for the Sri Lanka tour. The names of 15 players can be announced for the T20 series against Sri Lanka.

Before knowing who those 15 faces could be for the T20 series against Sri Lanka, it is important to know why Shubman Gill does not seem to be getting a place in the team? Shubman Gill led India to victory in the T20 series on the Zimbabwe tour under his captaincy. He was the highest run-scorer on this tour. He has scored 170 runs in 5 innings of 5 matches. If you look at the difference between him and the second highest run-scorer in the series, you will see a difference of 29 runs. Now you will say that everything is fine, then why can't Shubman Gill be a part of India's T20 team on the Sri Lanka tour?

Runs rained from Gill's bat, but where is the strike rate?

So the problem is not of runs, but of Gill's strike rate, which is given the most importance in T20 cricket. Gill scored the most runs on the Zimbabwe tour, 170. But, during this time, he forgot to take care of his strike rate. In the T20 series against Zimbabwe, his strike rate was only 125.92, which is less than other Indian batsmen.

Why shouldn't Gill be out?

Gill's problem related to strike rate was not seen only in the Zimbabwe series. Rather, his condition was the same earlier as well. If we look at Gill's strike rate among the batsmen who have scored at least 200 runs in T20I from the year 2023 till now, then after scoring 238 runs in 19 innings, it appears to be only 119. During this period, there have been only 3 batsmen in world cricket whose strike rate is less than Gill and one of them is Babar Azam.

Will they get a chance to tour Sri Lanka?

Let us now know who can be the 15 players who can be selected in Team India for the Sri Lanka tour. Hardik Pandya will be the captain. As for who can be the other 14 players apart from him, Suryakumar Yadav, Akshar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammad Siraj, Arshdeep Singh can return just like the captain. All these players were not a part of Team India on the Sri Lanka tour.

Apart from all these, those who can get a chance can include Abhishek Sharma, who scored a century in Zimbabwe, Yashasvi Jaiswal, who was the second top scorer of the series, Sanju Samson as wicketkeeper and Dhruv Jurel, Rinku Singh, Shivam Dubey, Ravi Bishnoi and Washington Sundar.

Probable Indian team for T20 series on Sri Lanka tour

Hardik Pandya (captain), Suryakumar Yadav, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Arshdeep Singh, Dhruv Jurel, Rinku Singh, Shivam Dubey, Ravi Bishnoi, Washington Sundar, Sanju Samson, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abhishek Sharma, Nitish Kumar Reddy