This came amidst speculations that the national selectors may look to infuse fresh blood by resting some key players in their bid to build the side for 2019 ICC World Cup when they meet to pick the ODI squad on Saturday.
Even though the Sri Lankan team has failed to pose any serious challenge against the visiting Indian side in the ongoing Test series, skipper Virat Kohli has made it clear that he will not skip the upcoming One-Day International series.
This came amidst speculations that the national selectors may look to infuse fresh blood by resting some key players in their bid to build the side for 2019 ICC World Cup when they meet to pick the ODI squad on Saturday.
"Who said I am not playing?" Kohli said on Friday. "I don't know where this came from, but I have no problems in playing."
With the three wise men of Indian cricket slated to pick a 15-man squad for the five-match ODI against Sri Lanka, there are indications that the squad will more or less resemble the same that played in the West Indies barring the exclusion of spinners Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin.
This means that senior pros like MS Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh, despite being criticised for being off-colour during India's Champions Trophy campaign in England, are likely to be picked for the Sri Lanka journey.
This despite the fact that the Champions Trophy final loss against Pakistan highlighted to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) that "Team India may not be left with any time if a rebuilding process is not started immediately".
The presence of Dhoni, Yuvraj, Kedar Jadhav and Jasprit Bumrah at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru for fitness tests is enough to indicate that their tickets to Colombo have already been booked.
"Can they (Yuvraj and Dhoni) survive till the next World Cup is something which is bothering all of us in the BCCI," a top Board official told DNA on Friday.
However, the same official expressed his inability to interfere in selection matters and rather left it to the wisdom of the selectors to decide on this crucial issue.
For the record, in the recent India 'A' series in South Africa, India's bench strength comprising Manish Pandey, Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant have all showed that they are capable of playing an aggressive brand of cricket that can instill a sense of fear among the opposition.
After Sri Lanka, Team India has only ODI series lined up against Australia, New Zealand and Sri Lanka again at home. With 16 ODIs to be played over the next few months, the selectors should not hesitate in testing at least three or four of these bench players.
And what better time to take a calculated risk than against a team like Sri Lanka, which lost an ODI series to Zimbabwe just before India's arrival in the emerald islands.
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