IND vs SL: Shikhar Dhawan dropped from India's ODI squad, is it the end of the road for him?

BCCI announced India's T20I and ODI squads for the upcoming series against Sri Lanka on Tuesday (December 27) evening. While it was expected that the seniors will miss the T20I series with Hardik Pandya taking over as stand-in captain, many were surprised to see Shikhar Dhawan going down the pecking order in the 50-over format. The man, not long ago, was the captain of team India when senior players didn't play.

He led India on Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and New Zealand tours. However, in recent times, his form dipped significantly and it coincided with Shubman Gill clicking in every possible outing. Dhawan's last six ODI scores read - 72, 3, 28, 7, 8, 3. Even in the South Africa ODIs at home, he didn't seem to be in good form which might have paved the way for the ever-impressive Gill to replace him in the ODI squad.

Will Dhawan be able to make a comeback?

Shikhar Dhawan is already out of the reckoning from the Tests and T20Is. With now him being dropped from the ODI squad, this could be the end of the road for the southpaw in international cricket. It remains to be seen if Dhawan himself reacts to his axing. With less than a year left for the ODI World Cup in India, the selectors might have moved away from Dhawan.

As far as his ODI career is concerned, Dhawan played 167 matches and amassed 6793 runs at an average of 44.11 with 17 centuries and 39 fifties. In another interesting development, KL Rahul has been removed from vice-captaincy and Hardik Pandya has been elevated for the role. Rahul has been going through the rough patch for quite some time now and didn't have a great Bangladesh tour either.

India's T20I squad: Hardik Pandya (c), Suryakumar Yadav (vc), Ishan Kishan (wk), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shubman Gill, Deepak Hooda, Rahul Tripathi, Sanju Samson(wk), Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Harshal Patel, Umran Malik, Shivam Mavi, Mukesh Kumar

India's ODI squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Hardik Pandya (vc), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Ishan Kishan (wk), Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umran Malik, Arshdeep Singh