With several first-choice white-ball players currently in England for the World Test Championship (WTC) final against New Zealand and the five-match Test series against the hosts, a younger Indian squad has assembled in Mumbai for the limited-overs tour of Sri Lanka in July.
The players reported at the team hotel in Mumbai on Monday (June 14) and will now quarantine for 14 days. Shikhar Dhawan and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, captain and vice-captain, also joined the group of players.
BCCI shared pictures of the players as they arrived at the team hotel. The board wrote, "#TeamIndia’s limited-overs squad for the Sri Lanka series has assembled in Mumbai. Good to see some new and happy faces in the squad #SLvIND"
The team is expected to depart for Sri Lanka on June 28 and will quarantine again for a short period before being allowed to train and practice.
Rahul Dravid will serve as the head coach of the Indian team, with regular coach Ravi Shastri away in England. BCCI President Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah confirmed the former captain's appointment for the short tour.
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Speaking to ANI, sources in the know of developments in Sri Lanka Cricket had confirmed that the Indian team wanted to play warm-up games, but the COVID-19 situation meant it had to be intra-squad games and not against a Sri Lanka 'A' team.
"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 said.
The schedule for the tour was confirmed last 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.
All the matches will be played in the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo.
(With ANI inputs)
