India rest in-form Kohli for T20 series v Sri Lanka

India on Monday announced their squad to face Sri Lanka in a three-match Twenty20 global (T20Is) series, to be played on February 9, 12 and 14 respectively. He has been replaced by Pawan Negi.

Kohli was named Man of the Series in the T20I series. Kohli has played 10 ODIs and five T20s apart from four Test matches between October last year and January this year.

Pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who missed most of the Australia tour owing to a finger injury, has been included into the team for the T20 series. Kohli’s place has gone to Delhi’s left-arm spinner Pawan Negi as India’s selector keep experimenting with team composition ahead of the ICC World twenty20 at home in March-April.

Gurkeerat Singh Mann and Rishi Dhawan have been out of the squad as Ajinkya Rahane has returned to the side.

His reasonably successful performances in the Mushtaq Ali and Deodhar Trophy events has earned him a spot as a cover for Ravindra Jadeja.

India take on Sri Lanka in the first T20 match on February 9 at Pune.

T20I (Women): Mithali Raj (Captain), Smriti Mandhana, Veda Krishnamurthy, Harmanpreet Kaur, Anuja Patil, Jhulan Goswami, Shikha Pandey, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Sushma Verma, Poonam Yadav, VR Vanitha, Sneh Rana, Thirushkamini MD, Ekta Bisht, Niranjana Nagarajan.

In the latest edition of “Maxi’s Blog” on cricket.com.au, the Aussie allrounder reached out to his Indian counterpart for an enthralling one-on-one chat that covered everything from Kohli’s love of Australia to his combative on-field temperament and everything in between.