After suffering defeat in the inaugural ICC World Test Championship 2021 final against New Zealand, India is now focusing on their limited over series against Sri Lanka.
Basically, a second-string Indian side led by Shikhar Dhawan is travelling to Sri Lanka today for three-match ODI series and three-match T20I series. The team has left for the tour of Sri Lanka today, ie on 28th June and BCCI has tweeted a photo of the travelling team.
Although the best players were sent to England to play the ICC WTC final, the white-ball specialists are being coached by Rahul Dravid, who is in charge of India’s tour of Sri Lanka. Dravid thinks this is a great opportunity for the players to cement their place for the upcoming ICC T20I World Cup.
Rahul Dravid said at a virtual pre-tour press conference on Sunday: “For sure, a lot of players are looking forward to cement their places in the ICC T20 World Cup. There will be a few players who are pushing for places. But the key focus in the two sessions that we had so far, has been on winning the series. That is going to be our primary objective. But hopefully, people will get some opportunities to put in some good performances in the course of winning the series and knock doors of selectors.”
India’s stand-by captain in place of Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan said at the pre-departure press conference on Sunday: “It’s a great honour for me to be the captain of the Indian team. I am looking forward to it. At the same time, as a team, working with Rahul bhai. I have played under his coaching once for India A, I was the captain on a tour of Bangladesh I feel that we (the support staff and the team) sync together well. We are looking forward to the series, to build a lot of positive things in the team.”
Team India’s squad for the tour of Sri Lanka
Shikhar Dhawan (Captain), Prithvi Shaw, Devdutt Padikkal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Suryakumar Yadav, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Nitish Rana, Ishan Kishan (Wicket-keeper), Sanju Samson (Wicket-keeper), Yuzvendra Chahal, Rahul Chahar, K Gowtham, Krunal Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy, Bhuvneshwar Kumar (Vice-captain), Deepak Chahar, Navdeep Saini, Chetan Sakariya
Net Bowlers: Ishan Porel, Sandeep Warrier, Arshdeep Singh, Sai Kishore, Simarjeet Singh
Team India’s schedule to prepare for the Sri Lanka series
- Quarantine in India till 28th June
- Fly to Sri Lanka on 28th June
- Strict quarantine in Sri Lanka till 1st July
- Practice allowed after 1st July
- Quarantine in Sri Lanka till 5th July
- Intra-squad practice matches before 1st ODI
- 1st ODI of the series start on 13th July
India’s tour of Sri Lanka schedule
ODI Series:
1st ODI – July 13- 1:30 PM
2nd ODI – July 16- 1:30 PM
3rd ODI – July 19- 1:30 PM
T20I Series:
1st T20I – July 22- 7:00 PM
2nd T20I – July 24- 7:00 PM
3rd T20I – July 27- 7:00 PM
How to watch India’s tour of Sri Lanka matches live in India?
Sony Sports is the exclusive broadcasting partner of India’s tour of Sri Lanka. You can watch the match live on Sony channels or watch the live streaming of the match on Sony LIV.
