The Board of Control for Cricket in India has made a few changes to the schedule of India's upcoming tour of Sri Lanka. The first T2OI of the tour, earlier slated to begin on July 26, will now be played on July 27 in Pallekele.
There are slated to be three T20Is in the series, all of which will be played in the same stadium in Pallekele. The second will be played on July 28, and the third will be played two days later, on July 30.
The ODI series, which was supposed to start on August 1, will now begin a day later, on August 2. The second game of the 50-over series will be played two days later, on August 4, while the final match will be played on August 7.
The R. Premadasa Stadium in the suburbs of Colombo, the only stadium in the capital city with floodlights, will host the one-day series between the two teams. Interestingly, this is only the first time since 2021 that India has traveled to Sri Lanka for a bilateral white-ball tour.
Back then, Rahul Dravid was in charge of a second-string India side, while Ravi Shastri was the head coach of the main team playing a Test series in England. Led by Shikhar Dhawan, India had won both the T20I and ODI series on that tour.
Seniors such as Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, and Virat Kohli are expected to be rested for the upcoming series. The newly appointed head coach, Gautam Gambhir, will be keen to see how the team gels under him.
India and Sri Lanka are going through transition phases, and it will be interesting to see how they fare against each other in this series. The hosts have named former opener Sanath Jayasuriya as their interim head coach.