BCCI president Sourav Ganguly has indicated that India would tour Sri Lanka to play three ODIs and five T20I match series later in 2021. BCCI has not yet announced any official squad or schedule for the tour.
India tour of Sri Lanka 2021
BCCI have planned to play the series with another team. It seems that skipper Virat Kohli and vice-captain Rohit Sharma will not be part of the tour as they will be engaged in a marquee five-match Test series in England.
BCCI President Ganguly (in PTI) said “The Indian team travelling to Sri Lanka will be white ball specialists and it will be completely different team”.
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“We have planned a white ball series for the senior men’s team during the month of July where they will play T20 Internationals and ODIs in Sri Lanka,” Ganguly told PTI in an interaction.
Ganguly said the Indian team for the Sri Lanka tour will have none of the players selected for the England Tests.
“Yes, it will be a team of white-ball specialists. It will be a different team,” Ganguly said, making it clear that the cricket board also has the preparation of white ball regulars in mind.
Following the conclusion of the England Test series on September 14, India have another short opening in their schedule ahead of the T20 World Cup that is set to begin sometime in mid-October.
The global event is supposed to be held in India, but given a particularly deadly second wave of the pandemic is currently raging across the country – amid which the IPL’s biosecure bubble was breached promoting its indefinite postponement last week – it remains a possibility that the event will be shifted.
“The BCCI president is very keen that all our top players are match ready and since England doesn’t have a white ball leg the month of July can be utilized well,” a BCCI source told PTI while explaining the logic behind the tour.
For the Kohlis and Sharmas, they need not come from the UK, which has in place some hard quarantine rules.
“Technically, in the month of July, there are no official senior India team matches. The Test squad will be playing intrasquad games.
“So there is no harm in India’s white-ball experts getting some match time and selectors also get to fix the missing jigsaws in selection puzzle.”
