Indian Women’s cricket team has pulled out of their proposed tour of England due to the ongoing global Coronavirus pandemic, confirmed the England and Wales Cricket Board on Tuesday (July 21).
Indian eves were supposed to travel to England in August and follow a 14-day quarantine period before the proposed tri-series featuring South Africa as well in September 2020.
They were originally scheduled to play three One Day Internationals and as many as T20Is against England Women in June, but the bilateral series got postponed due to the COVID-19 crisis.
Later, the England and Wales Cricket Board planned a tri-series in September, but the rising number of Coronavirus cases in India does not allow women’s team to travel to England for the series.
With India’s participation in the tri-series canceled, the ECB is planning to extend its series against South Africa Women, while the revised schedule will be announced soon. The Proteas Women are currently scheduled to play just 2 T20Is and as many ODIs later this summer.
An ECB spokesperson said: “We can confirm that India will not be traveling for the upcoming series as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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We remain fully committed to playing international women's cricket this summer and are looking to extend the proposed bilateral series against South Africa. We will hopefully have an update on this shortly.”
Noteworthy, the T20 World Cup in Australia was the last women's fixture held before the COVID-19 pandemic brought all sporting activities to a halt in March.
Considering the continuous rapid rise of Coronavirus cases in India, it is not even clear when the players restart training. At the moment, India is one of the worst affected countries by the COVID-19 with more than 11 lakh infections, and over 28,000 deaths reported so far.
(With India Today Inputs)
