India and Sri Lanka are set to face off in a three-match One Day International series from Sunday (December 10) in Dharamsala. The hosts will be without their prolific batsman and captain Virat Kohli, who has been rested.
In Kohli's absence, Mumbai right-hander Rohit Sharma will be in-charge of the team. It is a chance for him to create history during the series.
30-year-old Rohit, who has previously led Mumbai Indians (MI) to Indian Premier League (IPL) titles, can do the same now with the Indian team.
It will be for the first time that Rohit will be captaining India. If he leads the side to a 3-0 sweep over the Sri Lankans, he can enter the record books. It will be a huge achievement for Rohit if he does that on captaincy debut.
If India win the series 3-0 then they will reach the number one rank in the International Cricket Council's (ICC) ODI table. Now, India are at second position behind South Africa. Both the teams are tied at 120 rating points but when decimal points are taken into account, the Proteas are ahead.
If India win the opening game in Dharamsala then they will reach the top of the table. But to maintain that they need to succeed in the next two games.
India start as favourites in the series. However, the team will definitely miss Kohli the batsman. He has been on a record-breaking spree. He has already registered 32 tons in the 50-over format.
Kohli will miss the following three-match Twenty20 International rubber too. Rohit is the skipper for the shortest format too.
India squad for ODI series: Rohit Sharma (captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik, MS Dhoni (wicketkeeper), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Siddarth Kaul.
