Image Source:BCCI
On Sunday, May 9, BCCI president Sourav Ganguly said that the Indian team without major players like captain Virat Kohli and vice-captain Rohit Sharma will tour Sri Lanka for a limited-overs bilateral series in July.
All the top players won’t be part of the tour as they will be engaged in a five-match Test series in England.
Ganguly told PTI, “We have planned a white ball series for the senior men’s team during July where they will play T20 Internationals and ODIs in Sri Lanka.”
As per reports, there will be at least five T20 Internationals and maybe three ODIs in Sri Lanka.
India’s tour of England will end on September 14. The BCCI will look for Shikhar Dhawan, Hardik Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Yuzvendra Chahal to be match-ready.
A BCCI source told PTI while explaining the logic behind the tour, “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.”
“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.”