Team India gets grand welcome as players arrive in Lanka for white-ball series 

The Suryakumar-led side will play the first of the three T20Is on July 27, followed by matches on July 28 and 30

Pallekele: The Indian men’s cricket team under new head coach Gautam Gambhir and captain Suryakumar Yadav arrived here via Colombo to a warm welcome, with the recently-crowned T20 world champions playfully mingling with fans and giving them some precious moments.

The 15-member India team along with the support staff had left Mumbai on Monday after a pre-departure press conference addressed by Gambhir, who took over Rahul Dravid as the national coach, and BCCI’s chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar.

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They arrived the same same day in Pallekele after a short layover in Colombo. India will play a three-match T20I series against the home side, who are yet to announce their squad.

The Suryakumar-led side will play the first of the three T20Is on July 27, followed by matches on July 28 and 30. The team will then travel to Colombo to play three One-day Internationals scheduled for August 2, 4 and 7.

“Mumbai to Pallekele via Colombo. Team India have reached Sri Lanka,” wrote BCCI on X with a short video showing the players enjoying their air and road journey to the fullest.

The team, comprising of several youngsters with Shubman Gill as the vice-captain, is without stalwarts Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja, who announced retirement from T20Is following India’s title triumph in the T20 World Cup in the Caribbean.

Suryakumar was last week appointed the new T20 captain ahead of all-rounder Hardik Pandya, who previous led the side, because of his fitness and the feedback the team management got from the dressing room.

The team has a fair sprinkling of experience as apart from Suryakumar and Gill, it also has Sanju Samson, Pandya and pacers Mohammed Siraj and Arshdeep Singh among others.