"You have perfected the art of killing talent" - Fans roast BCCI as Team India leave out Suryakumar Yadav for 1st ODI vs SL

Team India have surprisingly left out in-form batter Suryakumar Yadav from their playing XI for the first ODI against Sri Lanka at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium in Guwahati on Tuesday, January 10.

Suryakumar had an incredible outing in 2022, finishing among the highest run-scorers for India in white-ball formats. The Mumbai-born cricketer smashed 1164 runs in 31 T20I matches and also accumulated 260 runs in 12 ODI innings.

He continued his good form this year and smashed a century in the third T20I against the Lankans in Rajkot.

Given his incredible form, it was expected that he would automatically slot into the ODI side. However, Rohit Sharma and Co. decided otherwise and backed Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul in the middle order.

Fans were certainly disappointed to not see Suryakumar in the playing XI for the Guwahati ODI. They took a dig at the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for leaving out a performer like the Mumbai Indians (MI) batter.

Meanwhile, Sri Lankan skipper Dasun Shanaka won the toss and asked India to bat first given that the dew is likely to settle down in the second innings.

Shubman Gill opened the innings alongside skipper Rohit Sharma, who is making a comeback from injury. At the time of writing, the hosts were 30/0 in 3.3 overs with both batters hitting a few boundaries.

India vs Sri Lanka playing XIs

India: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Mohammed Shami, Umran Malik, Mohammed Siraj, and Yuzvendra Chahal.

Sri Lanka: Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Mendis (wk), Avishka Fernando, Dhananjaya de Silva, Charith Asalanka, Dasun Shanaka (c), Wanindu Hasaranga, Chamika Karunaratne, Dunith Wellalage, Kasun Rajitha, and Dilshan Madushanka.

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Ankush is a cricket journalist at Sportskeeda covering news, listicles, features, and exclusives. A graduate in Commerce and an accountant by qualification, Ankush followed his true calling for sports journalism, and today, has over 8 years of experience having working for the likes of Sportzwiki and Cricfit. Ankush places a very high emphasis on factual accuracy in his articles and believes in representing the true image of the story. Writing in the simplest and most easy-to-understand language possible, especially for those not well-versed with English, is one of his strengths.

Ankush, who captained his state in the National School games, is a big fan of Ravichandran Ashwin. He admires his unconventional thinking and his eagerness to keep learning despite being a legend of the game. His favorite cricket team is Australia because of their mentality and fighting spirit, and them beating India in the 2003 World Cup final left a lasting impression on him.

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