Shikhar Dhawan, Ruturaj Gaikwad practice reverse-sweeps in Colombo ahead of Sri Lanka ODIs

The Indian cricket team was seen practicing in Colombo as the Shikhar Dhawan-led side gears up for the upcoming three-match One-Day International (ODI) series against Sri Lanka. The Indian team arrived in Sri Lanka on June 28 and was seen competing in an intra-squad match to begin their preparations. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) took to Twitter to share pictures from the intra-squad match.

Team India practices ahead of three-match ODI series

Taking to Twitter, BCCI posted some pictures of the team from their intra-squad T20 match in Colombo. Captioning the images with 'High Energy Full Intensity', BCCI also wrote about Team India's 'productive day in the field'. In the images posted by BCCI, Captain Dhawan can be seen playing a reverse sweep while Vice-Captain Bhuvaneshwar Kumar was also seen rolling his arm over during the practice session. Ruturaj Gaikwad and Ishan Kishan can also be seen playing. 

A video, with the highlights of the practice match, was also uploaded to the Sri Lankan Cricket's official YouTube page. In the video, Gaikwad, Nitish Rana, Manish Pandey, and Hardik Pandya can be seen batting in the match. Gaikwad can be seen playing a reverse sweep shot against Krunal Pandya. Rana was trying to sweep the spinners and Hardik was playing his usual style, hitting the big shots.

India vs Sri Lanka ODI series

Gaikwad got the international call-up after a good run in the suspended Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 where he scored 196 runs in seven games for Chennai Super Kings (CSK) including two half-centuries.

Dhawan is leading the squad as India's Test players including skipper Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja are currently in England for the upcoming five-match Test series. 

In place of the regular head coach Ravi Shastri, who is also in England with the Test squad, former India captain Rahul Dravid is traveling with a young team to Sri Lanka.

The ODI series will kick start on July 13 with the second and third games to be played on July 16 and 18 respectively. 

After the ODI series, both teams will compete in a three-match Twenty20 International series, starting July 21. All six matches will be played at the same venue the R Premadasa Stadium.

India squad:

Shikhar Dhawan (c), Prithvi Shaw, Devdutt Padikkal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Suryakumar Yadav, Manish Pandey, Nitish Rana, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Krishnappa Gowtham, Ishan Kishan, Sanju Samson, Yuzvendra Chahal, Rahul Chahar, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Navdeep Saini, Chetan Sakariya

(Image Credits: BCCI Twitter)