India vs Sri Lanka: Age is just a number! Shikhar Dhawan to be oldest Indian on ODI captaincy debut
IND vs SL: Eight years after making his presence felt and cementing his place in India's ODI set-up, Dhawan will lead the country for the first time when his team takes on Sri Lanka in the first encounter of the three-match ODI series.
Shikhar Dhawan has had a long and glittering career for India in one-day internationals. He has represented the country in all three formats but it is the ODIs where he has stamped his class. The southpaw was dismissed for a second-ball duck in his ODI debut in October 2010.
He burst on to the scene a little over two years later when opened the batting for India in the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy and ended the tournament as the highest run scorer. India lifted the trophy and it was the start of the Shikhar Dhawan-Rohit Sharma partnership at the top of the order for India, which is still going strong.
Eight years after making his presence felt and cementing his place in India's ODI set-up, Dhawan will lead the country for the first time when his team takes on Sri Lanka in the first encounter of the three-match ODI series.
On July 18, he will also be the oldest Indian skipper on captaincy debut. Dhawan will be 35 y 225 days when he takes the field against Lankans in the first ODI.
He will thus beat the earlier mark set by Mohinder Amarnath when he led the team for the first time in 1984.
Here is the list of three oldest players on captaincy debut for India in ODIs, whom Dhawan will leave behind.
Mohinder Amarnath- 34 y 37 days vs PAK at Sialkot, 1984
Syed Kirmani- 33 y 353 days vs WI at Guwahati, 1983
Ajit Wadekar- 33y 103 days vs ENG at Leeds, 1974
ALSO READ - India vs Sri Lanka: Shikhar Dhawan's track record in ODIs on Lankan soil
It must be noted that Dhawan is leading the Indian team in Sri Lanka as designated captain Virat Kohli is in England with the Test team, who will take on England in a 5-match series starting next month.
India will play three ODIs and three T20Is in Sri Lanka. The series was supposed to start from July 13, but was pushed back due to Covid-19 cases in the Sri Lankan camp.
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