Picture Credit: Twitter/@BCCI
The highly-anticipated India's upcoming tour of Sri Lanka in July has been officially confirmed on Monday. While it was earlier reported that the Men in Blue could play 5 T20Is, it looks like they have settled for 3 ODIs and 3 T20Is only. The fixtures of the tour are as follows:
1st ODI - July 13
2nd ODI - July 16
3rd ODI - July 18
1st T20I - July 21
2nd T20I - July 23
3rd T20I - July 25
Men in Blue will play under new captain and new coach
It has been confirmed that the Indian Test side would be staying back in England after the conclusion of WTC final in Southampton. Virat Kohli's team are scheduled to begin their 5-match Test series against the hosts from August 4 onwards. Hence, none of the players from that squad will be available for the tour of Sri Lanka in July. With Kohli's deputies - Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul also in the UK, BCCI will have to appoint a new captain for this bilateral series against their neighbours.
Veteran opener Shikhar Dhawan is the most experienced player available for the series and is expected to take over the captaincy duties. Meanwhile, NCA head Rahul Dravid is likely to travel with the team as their head coach in the absence of Ravi Shastri. With the likes of Hardik Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Yuzvendra Chahal set to feature in the limited-overs series, Team India could also include few fresh faces in the squad which will be announced this month.