The Sri Lankan team has been unable to reach Mohali on Day due to inclement weather on Monday as they were supposed to reach there by a chartered plane.

While the Indian team reached Mohali on time, through a small window provided by the weather, constant rains and weather left Sri Lanka stranded at the airport for close to four hours. The Islanders then decided to head back to the team hotel and is likely to fly out on Tuesday.

Explaining the same, an official of HPCA, Mohit Sood said, “The team has returned to the hotel, and is most likely to fly out tomorrow. This is the first time a team has been stuck here. There have been delays earlier but it has never happened that the planes have not been able to land or take off.”

According to sources, the plane originally not been able to land at the Dharamsala airport due to the weather. It was then decided to delay the departure as the weather had not cleared in Mohali as well.

Ruling out travel by road in the night, Sood said, “We had a discussion with the team management and they decided to stay back. But if the weather doesn’t clear up on Tuesday then the only option left will be to take the road.”

The road journey to Mohali, about 240-250 km, will take 8-10 hours.

The weather has been one of the talking points for the first two ODIs as the timing for both Dharamsala and Mohali games were changed. Instead of the usual 1:30 pm start, the matches have been rescheduled for 11:30 am start to avoid dew and fog.

According to MeT office, Mohali might witness heavy rains or snowfall over the next 48 hours while a wet spell with rains or snow at many places would continue till December 14.