India To Tour Sri Lanka In July For 3 ODIs, 3 T20Is; No Player Picked For England Tests To Feature

For the first time since the Nidahas Trophy in March 2018. the Indian team will travel to Sri Lanka. A white-ball tour comprising 3 ODIs and 3 T20Is is to take place in the month of July.

As per SLC’s proposed itinerary to the BCCI, accessed by ESPNcricinfo, the tour will begin with the 50-over leg on July 13, followed by 16, 19. The T20I games will be played on July 22, 24, 27. The venues are yet to be finalized.

The preliminary itinerary further said India’s white-ball squad would arrive in Sri Lanka on July 5 and depart on July 28. They will have to undergo a week-long quarantine in two sets: a 3-day hard quarantine inside their rooms; in the next 4 days the squad can train but with their movement restricted to the hotel and the ground.

India Test players to miss Sri Lanka tour

The players who will travel to the UK on June 2 for the Test assignments – the World Test Championship final and the England Test series – will not be part of the Sri Lanka tour.

The WTC final against New Zealand is slated for June 18th in Southampton; the series against England commences on August 4th. Considering the quarantine protocols in England, it is near to impossible for any player to feature in all the games.

Hence, the BCCI will be sending a relatively inexperienced side to Sri Lanka.

With both Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli flying to England, it would have to be seen who the selectors pick as the captain India for the Sri Lanka tour – Shikhar Dhawan is a likely contender for the role. If Shreyas Iyer is fit by the time, he could also get a look for captaincy after leading the Delhi Capitals to the IPL 2020 final.

Several other players will be eyeing this opportunity in absence of the first-choice ones. Apart from Suryakumar Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar (if fit), Hardik Pandya, Yuzvendra Chahal, Rahul Chahar, who all are likely to be selected and were part of the series against England at home, Sanju Samson, Prithvi Shaw, Deepak Chahar, Rahul Chahar, Jaydev Unadkat, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy, and Rahul Tewatia are some of the players who will be in the reckoning for the Sri Lanka tour.

The Lankans themselves are scheduled to play white-ball matches in England before hosting India. They will take on Eoin Morgan’s side for three T20Is and three ODIs between June 23 and July 4.

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