Team India will play the ICC World Test Championship Final in Southampton on 18 June 2021, after which they will take on England in the five-Test series, starting August 4. India’s Sri Lankan tour will probably happen in the last week of July.
Due to the COVID-19 situation, the Indian squad in the UK will not be able to travel to Sri Lanka and be prepare for the Test series against England also. Therefore, in an unusual development, a couple of different Indian squads will be touring in parallel.
In an exclusive live chat with Indranil Basu on the Social media network, BCCI Treasurer Arun Dhumal said that the board made the call because of the FTP (Future Tours Programme) program and financial needs.
“See as you know the cricket world is under tremendous pressure for the last one-and-a-half year given this COVID pandemic, a lot of FTP has been canceled which has put a lot of strains on these associations all over the world. Until and unless you do these tours, we can’t make up, and it would be very difficult for all these boards to come out of the financial struggle that they are going through,” said Arun Dhumal.
Dhumal noted that Team India has great bench strength that allowed the BCCI to plan 2-international tours at almost the same moment.
Team India had to miss the Sri Lanka tour last year also: Arun Dhumal
Arun Dhumal named Team India’s Sri Lankan tour was first planned for 2020. But because of the covid situation, the boards had to drop the series.
With many white-ball experts available to play, they could form a different squad for the Sri Lankan tour, the selection panel felt.
“We had to miss the Sri Lanka tour last year also. So, we need to work out on that and since our team that is going to England is primarily for Tests, we could have made up a team for these white-ball matches. So, that is why we thought we should do our bit to make sure Sri Lankan board and we can play white-ball cricket in time,” added Arun Dhumal.