Kohli to lead India; Shreyas Iyer, Mohammed Siraj included in T20s

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Bengaluru, October 23: Virat Kohli will lead India in the first two Tests against Sri Lanka and in the T20Is against New Zealand as the national selectors announced respective teams in Mumbai on Monday (October 23).

There were speculations that Kohli may be rested for the series, at least for the initial phase to tie knot with Bollywood actor and his long time girlfriend Anushka Sharma.

Spin duo R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja returned to the squad after getting 'rested' for the ODIs against Sri Lanka, Australia and New Zealand. Opener M Vijay who missed the Sri Lanka tour due to a hand injury too was named in the 16-man squad.

India will play three Tests, ODIs and T20Is against the Lankans from November 16 to December 24. The first two Tests will held in Kolkata (November 16-20) and Nagpur (November 24-28).

In the T20s, India have called up prolific run scorer of Mumbai Shreyas Iyer and 23-year-old Hyderabad all-rounder Mohammad Siraj.

The team: Virat Kohli (Capt), K LRahul, M Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, Cheteswar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane (vice-captain), Rohit Sharma Wriddhiman Saha, R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Mohammad Shami,Umesh Yadav,Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ishant Sharma.

India vs Sri Lanka full schedule

November 16-20: First Test, Kolkata; November 24-28 - Second Test, Nagpur; December 2-6; Third Test, Delhi.

Dec 10: First ODI, Dharamsala; December 13; Second ODI, Mohali; December 17; Third ODI, Visakhapatnam

December 20: First T20, Cuttack; December 22; Second T20, Indore; December 24 - Third T20, Mumbai.

TEAM FOR T20Is Vs NZ: Virat Kohli (Capt), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, KLRahul, Manish Pandey, Shreyas Iyer, Dinesh Karthik, MS Dhoni, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Ashish Nehra, Mohammed Siraj.