India tour of Sri Lanka 2021: Shikhar Dhawan humbled to get an opportunity to lead his country

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New Delhi, June 11: Senior India opener Shikhar Dhawan says he's humbled by the opportunity to lead the national side in the upcoming limited-overs series in Sri Lanka, next month. Dhawan was on Thursday (June 10) appointed the captain of the new-look Indian limited-overs side for the Sri Lanka tour. India will be playing three ODIs and three T20Is in the series.

The BCCI announced a 20-man squad late Thursday and included six uncapped players in the absence of top cricketers already in England for the World Test Championship and a subsequent five-Test series against England. The selection of a number of youngsters in the squad is on expected lines. Many of them impressed with their performances in the now-suspended IPL 2021 and have been rewarded with their maiden India call-up.

Dhawan - who is the senior-most player on the side - has been named the captain of the limited-overs squad in the absence of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. Dhawan's name was in competition with Hardik Pandya to lead the national side but the southpaw was given precedence over Baroda cricketer.

Dhawan took to his Twitter handle and wrote: "Humbled by the opportunity to lead my country. Thank you for all your wishes."

The Indian cricket team includes Devdutt Padikkal, pacer Chetan Sakaria, Nitish Rana, Krishnappa Gowtham, Ruturaj Gaikwad and Varun Chakravarthy. Prithvi Shaw and Manish Pandey have made a comeback but Shreyas Iyer has missed out on selection because he has not yet recovered from his shoulder injury.