IND vs SL 1st ODI: KL Rahul or Rishabh Pant? Rohit Sharma gives his opinion in pre-match press conference

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IND vs SL 1st: A tough selection call awaits captain Rohit Sharma and head coach Gautam Gambhir as India gear up for the first ODI against Sri Lanka at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on Friday, August 2.

Rishabh Pant is returning to India's squad for the first time after November 2022. The wicketkeeper-batter made a stellar comeback to professional cricket the IPL 2024 which helped him earn a spot in India's T20 World Cup 2024 squad.

Pant was out of action for almost 15 months after his near-fatal car crash in December 2022. But the southpaw is back in the reckoning, and has found his way back in the ODIs as well.

KL Rahul wasn't picked for the T20 World Cup 2024, but dropping him from the ODI playing eleven would be difficult. The right-hander was prolific in the ODI World Cup 2023, scoring 452 runs in 11 matches at an average of 75.33. He finished as the eighth-highest run-scorer in the ICC event.

The Karnataka star is India's first-choice wicketkeeper-batter in the ODIs since the last few years. He was considered for the role in Asia Cup 2023 as well, and Rahul's glovework has also improved over the period.

The toss up between Rahul and Pant would be an interesting one for fans, and a tedious job for the team management, However, India captain Rohit Sharma has called it a "happy problem". In the pre-match press-conference ahead of the 1st ODI, Rohit said choosing one between Rahul and Pant would be difficult.

"It's difficult to choose between KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant. Both are match-winners in their own way. But it's a happy problem and I want to have that kind of problems," Rohit Sharma said on Thursday, August 1.

Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill and Virat Kohli are certain of occupying the top three spots, while Shreyas Iyer is also a certainty in the playing eleven. India would also be looking to play one between Shivam Dube and Riyan Parag. Axar would be the first-choice all-rounder, and therefore accommodating both Pant and Rahul won't be an easy job.

Rohit Sharma did not give away anything, and we would have to wait for the toss which will take place at 2:00 PM IST on Friday.

India ODI squad vs Sri Lanka: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill (vc), Virat Kohli, KL Rahul (WK), Rishabh Pant (wk), Shreyas Iyer, Shivam Dube, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohd. Siraj, Washington Sundar, Arshdeep Singh, Riyan Parag, Axar Patel, Khaleel Ahmed, Harshit Rana.