BCCI president Sourav Ganguly on Sunday (May 9) confirmed that India’s second-string team will tour Sri Lanka in July for a limited-overs bilateral series.
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Leading names such as Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma won’t be part of the tour as they will be in England for the five-match Test series, slated to be held from August 4 to September 14.
“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.
When enquired about the composition of the team, the BCCI boss said that it will be a different side, which won’t have anyone from the squad that will be in UK at that time.
“Yes, it will be a team of white ball specialists. It will be a different team,” Ganguly stated, making it clear that the cricket board also has the preparation of white ball regulars in mind.
Team India are expected to play 5 T20 Internationals and may be 3 ODIs during the tour of Sri Lanka.
Since the England tour doesn’t have a limited-overs leg, the BCCI would want the likes of Shikhar Dhawan, Hardik Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, among other white ball specialists to be match ready.
“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.
With England having stern quarantine rules in place, the likes of Kohli and Rohit need not come to Sri Lanka for the series.
“Technically, in the month of July there are no official senior India team matches. The Test squad will be playing intra squad 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.”
The white ball series against Sri Lanka will also allow the selectors to carry out experiments, like whether it will be Chahal, Rahul Chahar or Rahul Tewatia for the leg-break bowler’s slot and if Chetan Sakariya can be tried as left-arm option.
It could also open up the doors for Devdutt Padikkal, Prithvi Shaw, Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan to stake their claims in the limited-overs side.
(With PTI inputs)
