GANGULY CONFIRMS INDIA WILL TOUR LANKA IN JULY

Kolkata, May 9: BCCI president Sourav Ganguly on Sunday said that the Indian team, sans the top players, will tour Sri Lanka in July for a limited overs bilateral series.

Big names such as skipper Virat Kohli and vice-captain Rohit Sharma will not be part of the tour as they will be engaged in a marquee five-match Test series in England.

“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 said in an interaction.

Asked how will India segregate the two teams, Ganguly said that it will be a different side, which won’t have anyone from the outfit that will be in the United Kingdom at that time.

“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 cricket board also has the preparation of white ball regulars in mind.

There will be at least 5 T20 Internationals and may be three ODIs in Sri Lanka.

India’s tour of England will end on September 14 and with the schedule of the remainder of IPL yet to be chalked out, the BCCI would want the likes of Shikhar Dhawan, Hardik Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Yuzvendra Chahal to be match ready.

“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 said while explaining the logic behind the tour.