IND vs SL: Rohit on cusp of joining MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli in elite list; India captain gazing at world record in T20Is

Rohit will be leading the side for the 26th time on Thursday when India take on Sri Lanka in the T20I series opener in Lucknow.

After dominating the T20I series against West Indies, India will look to continue the winning momentum against Sri Lanka in the three-match series, which will also be their second T20 assignment in the lead-up to this year's T20 World Cup. Skipper Rohit Sharma will hope that his team does an encore of the show against Windies. Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant have been rested for the rubber but India has plenty of options at disposal, leaving Rohit and head coach Rahul Dravid with a selection headache.

MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma (Twitter/BCCI)

Rohit may be scratching his head over the perfect team combination but the seasoned batter has a chance to join Kohli and MS Dhoni in an elusive list. If the 34-year-old batter manages to score 63 runs in the first T20I against Sri Lanka, he will become only the third Indian captain after Kohli and Dhoni to achieve the feat. Overall, he will be the 10th captain to do so in the shortest format of the game.

India vs Sri Lanka 1st T20I Live Score

Rohit will be leading the side for the 26th time on Thursday and if he gets past the 1000-run mark, he will equal Babar Azam's tally of reaching the landmark in 26 innings. The Indian captain also has a chance to surpass Martin Guptill as the leading run-scorer in T20 Internationals.

He had scored 66 runs at an average of 22.00 in the T20I series against West Indies and Rohit would eye better returns against Sri Lanka. He is just 37 runs away from surpassing Guptill in the elusive list.

Rohit the batter may add one more feather to his already illustrious cap but the skipper can also lead India to their best-ever winning streak in T20 Internationals. A win in the series opener would be India's 10th consecutive T20I win.

With Suryakumar ruled out of the T20I series, it remains to see whether Rohit promotes Ruturaj Gaikwad and Ishan Kishan at the top while bracketing himself in the middle order. India will also miss the services of Deepak Chahar, who will be absent due to a hamstring injury. While the likes of Kohli, Pant and Shardul Thakur have been rested, Sanju Samson has been included in the T20I squad.

Rohit last week was named as the Test skipper as he took charge of the Indian team across all three formats. "It is a huge honour and it is always a great feeling to be captaining India in all three formats. I have a lot of challenges to look forward to, once the opportunity came through, I was glad and very happy to be captaining the team," said Rohit during a virtual press conference on Wednesday.

"We have a solid bunch of guys, so looking forward to leading them onto the park and seeing what we can create on the field," he added.