Kohli Rested Ahead of Asia Cup and World T20

Pawan Negi in for India-Sri Lanka T20Is

New Delhi: The BCCI selection committee have rested Virat Kohli for the upcoming three-match Twenty20 international series with Sri Lanka.

Karnataka batsman Manish Pandey, who scored a match-winning maiden ODI century in the final match in Sydney recently, has been included as Kohli's replacement.

From the squad that toured Australia recently, those to be dropped are Rishi Dhawan, Gurkeerat Singh Mann and Umesh Yadav.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who had to fly back from Australia with a fractured left thumb, has been named in place of Umesh who did not feature in any of the three T20Is in Australia.

Gurkeerat drops out with Ajinkya Rahane fit as well, with Delhi's Pawan Negi the chosen allrounder in place of Himachal Pradesh's Dhawan.

This is a first international call-up for Negi, 23, who is a left-arm spinner and hard-hitting left-hand batsman with 56 T20 matches to his credit, from which he averages 19.16 with the bat at a strike-rate of 134.92 and has to his credit 46 wickets at 26.28.

The three T20I matches will be played in Pune on February 9, Ranchi on February 12 and Visakhapatnam on February 14.

India squad: MS Dhoni (capt and wk), Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Manish Pandey, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Jasprit Bumrah, Ashish Nehra, Harbhajan Singh, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Pawan Negi