The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has named the Indian squad for the upcoming tour of Sri Lanka, scheduled to take place in July. Both teams will play three One-Day Internationals and three T20Is during the white-ball series in July.
Meanwhile, a source revealed Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has rejected BCCI’s request of staging practice matches ahead of the series. Now, India will be playing three intra-squad matches in Colombo ahead of the series to kickstart their preparations for the series.
Also Read: BCCI urges fans to get behind Team India for WTC Final
The Covid-19 situation was a reason behind SLC’s rejection of hosting practice matches.
“The Indians wanted to play some warm-up games against the “A” team or a team that could be arranged, but the COVID-19 protocols made that a little difficult and that is when a request went to BCCI to play intra-squad games. So, the Indian team will now play one T20 game and two one-day games to prepare for the limited-overs series,” the source told ANI.
Indian players have assembled in Mumbai to undergo a 14-day quarantine before flying to Sri Lanka. BCCI revealed this information on their Twitter handle.
“Team India’s limited-overs squad for the Sri Lanka series has assembled in Mumbai. Good to see some new and happy faces in the squad,” tweeted BCCI.
Also Read: Shikhar Dhawan to captain India in Sri Lanka
Earlier, BCCI named Shikhar Dhawan captain for this series as several first-team players will be in England, where they will first play in the World Test Championship Final against New Zealand. Later on, a five-match Test series is scheduled to take place against England, which will begin in August.
The schedule for the three-match ODI series and three-match T20I series between India and Sri Lanka was confirmed earlier this week. The three ODIs will be played on July 13, 16, and 18. While the T20I series will commence on July 21, and the next two matches will be played on July 23 and 25.
