Ireland T20Is: Surya and Sanju play XI

 

Dashing strikers Suryakumar Yadav and Sanju Samson return to the India eleven in place of Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant from Sunday in the T20I series with two games against Ireland.

While head coach Rahul Dravid is in Leicester with the Test squad, National Cricket Academy (NCA) boss VVS Laxman, who is in charge of the T20I team for this particular series, is expected to follow suit, as defined by The Wall.

With Iyer and Pant in the Test squad, Surya, who is coming back from a wrist injury, and Samson, who is looking to seize what may be his last chance to prove his worth, will be safe starters. Surya has been a regular on the Indian side of the T20I for a year and is only just finding his place again.

But when it comes to Samson, his alternate could be Deepak Hooda, who can also throw some handy off-spin overs in addition to having the ability to hit the ball hard. However, if you look at Coach Dravid's philosophy, he doesn't believe in stretching the net too wide and exploring too many options. He also needs to get closer to where India plays the Asian Cup.

While Ruturaj Gaikwad was not very successful, the Chennai Super Kings opener could have two more chances against a weak Irish side, against whom he can score some points and regain his confidence. Ishan Kishan, who has all but sealed the reserve's opening spot for the next few months, will continue in his role, for now, also opening with regular skipper Rohit Sharma in the English section of the T20Is.

Assistant captain Hardik Pandya, who finished 5th in the last series, is expected to continue that position with Dinesh Karthik coming one place below him. However, since Karthik was assigned a specific role, he could also get ahead of Pandya depending on the situation. Referral Link