The Lankan board confirmed that the Indian players wanted to play some practice games, but the COVID-19 situation meant it had to be intra-squad games and not against a Sri Lanka ‘A’ team.
The India squad led by Shikhar Dhawan will play three intra-squad games in Colombo as preparation for the limited-overs series against Sri Lanka. But first, the team will undergo a 14-day quarantine in India (seven days of hard and seven days of soft quarantine) from Monday before undergoing another phase of quarantine in Colombo.
Speaking to ANI, sources in the know of developments in the Lankan board confirmed that the Indian players wanted to play some practice 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 protcols 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.
Back to preparations in India, the team will assemble on Monday and undergo seven days of hard quarantine and seven days of soft quarantine with indoor training. The team leaves for Colombo on June 28.
“The boys will assemble on Monday and undergo 14 days of quarantine with regular testing. While the first seven days will be hard quarantine, the players can then train indoors for the next seven days. Post that they leave for Colombo,” a BCCI official said.
The Indian boys are again set to undergo 3 days of hard quarantine in Colombo before training in quarantine till July 4. After that, they will be allowed to train normally before the series gets underway on July 13 in Colombo.
“As per the plan, the team after reaching Colombo will be in hard quarantine for three days before starting to train in quarantine till July 4. Post this period they can train normally in the bubble till July 12 and also play the intra-squad games,” the official added.
The All-India Senior Selection Committee on Thursday picked the squad for the 3-match ODI series and 3-match T20I series. The team will be led by Dhawan with Bhuvneshwar Kumar being picked as the vice-captain.
All matches will be played at the R Premadasa International Cricket Stadium, Colombo. Prithvi Shaw has earned a call-up into the white-ball squad. Opening batters Devdutt Padikkal and Ruturaj Gaikwad have also been named in the squad.
Varun Chakravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Rahul Chahar, K Gowtham have been chosen as the spinners while the young speedster Chetan Sakariya, who impressed everyone in the Indian Premier League (IPL), has also earned a place in the squad.
The schedule for the three-match ODI series and three-match T20I series between India and Sri Lanka was confirmed earlier this 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.