BCCI president Sourav Ganguly confirmed that India, sans the top players, will be touring Sri Lanka for a limited overs series in July. Captain Virat Kohli, vice-captain Rohit Sharma and ace pacer Jasprit Bumrah won’t be a part of this tour as they’ll be busy in England for a five-match Test series.
“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 stated to PTI in an interaction.
On being questioned about how will India assemble the two teams, Ganguly stated that it will be a different side, which won’t have anyone from the outfit in the United Kingdom.
“Yes, it will be a team of white ball specialists. It will be a different team,”
the former India captain said, making it clear that the board has one eye on the preparation of white ball players.
India’s tour of England will conclude on September 14, and with the schedule of the remainder of IPL yet to be finalized, the BCCI would look to give the players like Shikhar Dhawan, Hardik Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yuzvendra Chahal some match practice.
“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.
There will be at least 5 T20 Internationals and three ODIs in Sri Lanka with a new-look Indian team. This will provide the team an opportunity to carry out experiments and fix the playing XI slots – like whether it will be Yuzvendra Chahal, Rahul Chahar or Ravi Bishnoi for the leg spinner’s slot, if Chetan Sakariya can be tried as left-arm option, whether Shreyas Iyer gets fit to play by then.
Apart from that, Prithvi Shaw’s international career could get rejuvenated with this white ball series. Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan will also have a chance to force their way into the first-choice Indian eleven ahead of the T20 World Cup.
