India dealt another Bumrah blow

Jasprit Bumrah was named as a late addition to the ODI squad for the Sri Lanka series but BCCI have decided to push his return in order to give him more time to build bowling resilience.

Bumrah has been out of action since September 2022 owing to a back injury and as a result, missed the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia. The ace pacer completed his rehabilitation at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru and has been seen bowling in the nets but BCCI have chosen not to rush him back into action.

India have a packed calendar ahead, starting with the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in February-March. They are also in contention for a top-two spot in the ICC World Test Championship and later in the year, will host the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup.

India will expect Bumrah to play a key role in the year ahead and it will be important to manage his workload on his comeback from injury.

The ODI series against Sri Lanka kicks off on 10 January in Guwahati before the action moves to Kolkata and Thiruvananthapuram for the second and third match respectively.

The series will see the return of captain Rohit Sharma, who has been out of action since the first week of December 2022 after sustaining a finger injury during the second ODI against Bangladesh.

The likes of Virat Kohli, KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer too return to the squad after being rested for the T20I series against Sri Lanka, which India won 2-1 under the captaincy of Hardik Pandya.

Updated squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Hardik Pandya (vc), Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Umran Malik, Arshdeep Singh.