The white ball series of India against Sri Lanka is starting from July 27, and Team India has an all new head coach as Gautam Gambhir.

It is expected the new head coach will meet the selectors this week to discuss the T20I and ODI squads for the tour of Sri Lanka. India are to play three T20Is and three ODIs, with few regulars expected to return after a break.

In the absence of Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav and Mohammad Siraj – all of whom were part of India’s victorious T20 World Cup campaign in the West Indies last month, a young Indian team led by Shubman Gill toured Zimbabwe and made a strong statement with 4-1 series in the T20I format.

With Gambhir officially announced as the head coach, the former India opener will be at the helm of affairs starting the SL series, and there could be a lot of changes to the squads, especially in the T20I squad, with the bigwigs expected to return.

With a jumbo squad of 18 players for the Zimbabwe series, the openers – Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal – will likely continue to be India’s first-choice openers. However, regarding Ruturaj Gaikwad, the Maharashtra player could likely be omitted from the T20 squad in favour of a returning Suryakumar Yadav, who could very likely be vice-captain for the series.

The return of Axar Patel will give the Indian middle-order a different look from the Zimbabwe series.

Under Gambhir, Sanju Samson could get more opportunities, and the Indian middle-order for the SL series could very well be SKY, Samson, Pandya, Axar and Shivam Dube or Rinku Singh as the late-order enforcer. This would mean Riyan Parag, Sai Sudharsan, and Jitesh Sharma could miss out.

Considering Rishabh Pant has been playing non-stop since recovering from his career-threatening accident, he could be given an extended break to be fresh for the Bangladesh Test, which will begin on Sept 19. In that case, Dhruv Jurel could pip Jitesh Sharma as the backup wicketkeeping option.