India tour of Sri Lanka: Aakash Chopra picks his top five performers from Team India ahead of ODI series – Former India cricketer Aakash Chopra has picked his top five performers from Team India in the upcoming India tour of Sri Lanka (IND vs SL). Shikhar Dhawan led Team India is scheduled to play three ODI and three T20I matches starting from July 18. As Virat Kohli’s Team India is in England for the Test match series, a lot of young players were picked for the Sri Lanka tour out of which Chopra has picked Prithvi Shaw, Varun Chakravarthy, Deepak Chahar, Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan or Sanju Samson as his top performers.
“The first name on my list is someone who has never played international cricket. His name is Varun Chakravarthy. If we see the Indian bowling department, a mystery spinner is not there. Once you have a mystery spinner, you feel your bowling is complete,” Aakash Chopra said on his YouTube channel.
IND vs SL: Varun Chakravarthy was dropped twice from the Indian squad for not meeting the fitness standards. Second on Chopra’s list is opener Prithvi Shaw, who is in blistering form in the domestic cricket while third is Suryakumar Yadav has proved his worth with brilliant performance in IPL.
“The second player I am thinking about is Prithvi Shaw. Given the form he is in, 2021 is his year. He can leave anyone behind when he is batting, you can put any Indian batsman at the other end. If he shines, that will be fantastic.”
“At number three, I have kept Suryakumar Yadav. He has been absolutely sensational, there is no doubt about that. The ability to bat both up and down the order separates him from the rest. He has got the all-around game,” Aakash Chopra added.
IND vs SL: Chopra is a big fan of Deepak Chahar’s bowling thus he finds the fourth spot on the list. While he picked Sanju Samson and Ishan Kishan for the number four spot.
“At number four, I have kept Deepak Chahar. Generally, he always plays in the T20s but if we see the last series, he was in the team but was not given a chance. He is the same bowler who has the world record. He can do well in the ODIs as well.”
“Last but not least, there is a toss-up between Ishan Kishan and Sanju Samson. When you see towards the Indian team, you have KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant as the wicket-keeper options, but you might need an additional batsman,” a former cricketer concluded.
IND vs SL Test Series: Squads India’s squad: Shikhar Dhawan (Captain), Prithvi Shaw, Devdutt Padikkal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Suryakumar Yadav, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Nitish Rana, Ishan Kishan (Wicket-keeper), Sanju Samson (Wicket-keeper), Yuzvendra Chahal, Rahul Chahar, K Gowtham, Krunal Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy, Bhuvneshwar Kumar (Vice-captain), Deepak Chahar, Navdeep Saini, Chetan Sakariya
Net Bowlers: Ishan Porel, Sandeep Warrier, Arshdeep Singh, Sai Kishore, Simarjeet Singh