The Sri Lanka cricket team is getting ready for the India cricket series which will commence on January 3 with the first T-20 game against India scheduled to be held at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai.
The Second T-20 game will be played on January 5 at Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune while the third and final T-20 is scheduled to be played at Saurashtra Cricket Stadium Rajkot on January 7. The T-20 games will start at 7 pm each day.
The three ODIs against India will commence from January 10 at Barsapara Cricket Stadium at Guwahati while the second ODI will be held on January 12 at Eden Gardens Kolkata. The third and final ODI is scheduled to be held on January 15 at Greenfield International Stadium in Thiruvananthapuram. The ODIs will commence at 2 pm each day.
The Sri Lanka cricket squad led by Dasun Shanaka already started their training yesterday at R. Premadasa International cricket stadium and MAX Cricket Academy Indoor Nets while the skill training was done by the trainers yesterday and from today the 20- member squad will start their normal training under the supervision of head coach Chris Silverwood and Assistant coach Naveed Nawaz. Daily News learns that the selected 20-member Sri Lanka squad have been sent for the Sports Minister’s approval. However, Sports Minister Roshan Ranasinghe is already overseas and SLC is waiting to get approval before December 30 as the team is scheduled to leave on 31.
Meanwhile, Sports Minister earlier said the National teams have to get approval first from the National selection committee, and then it has to be sent to National Sports Council (NSC) headed by Arjuna Ranatunga. The senior official of the SLC said this selected team approval process is very long and it’s unfair for the teams to get ready for the overseas tours.
In addition, the Sports Ministry also asked to send tour itineraries, tour invitation letters, the supporting officials’ names lists, the correct names of the players to be sent for Visa approval and fitness test reports, and all other requirements for the Ministry approval.
Meanwhile, India’s Chetan Sharma’s selection committee is set to stretch a few more days as the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has sent the national selectors on Ranji Trophy duty. All of them – Sunil Joshi, Debasis Mohanty and Harvinder Singh besides chairman Chetan – have been asked to report for the third round Ranji games which started yesterday (December 27) at various venues
The obvious implication of this decision is that the outgoing panel will pick the squad for the white-ball series against Sri Lanka that will start in Mumbai on January 3. The meeting of the committee is expected to take place yesterday itself and the announcement is expected today
The Indian media reports stated the focus of the selection committee will be on the two senior cricketers, skipper Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. the skipper Sharma’s injured thumb, which kept him out of the Test series against Bangladesh, has not fully healed and he is required to be
given further rest. It has also been learnt that Kohli has sought a break for the T20Is. It could make the selectors’ jobs easy as they want to try out new players for the T20Is. Meanwhile, all-rounder, Hardik Pandya is tipped to be named as the T-20 India team captain against Sri Lanka while Rohit Sharma will be back for the three ODIs against Sri Lanka.