Schedule for India's tour of Australia finalised subject to nods from local state governments

Cricket Australia (CA) has jotted down the schedule for upcoming India’s visit later this year. The Indian Premier League (IPL) is currently in progress and all the Australia tour bound players are expected to leave together from UAE itself. At the moment, CA has scheduled the Pink Ball game to mark the beginning of the Test series. This will also be India’s first overseas day-night Test match ever.

The tour is likely to begin with the white-ball games with Brisbane set to host three ODIs while as many T20Is will be played in Adelaide followed by the first Test (D/N) at the same venue. However, all this is subject to the nods from the local state governments in Australia.

However, according to ESPNCricinfo, both CA and BCCI have internally agreed on the itinerary of the tour but are yet to make it public with permissions of the state governments pending.

Test series to begin on December 17

Currently, CA has jotted down the plan to play the three-match ODI series from November 25-30 in Brisbane with the T20Is to be played from December 4-8 in Adelaide. Virat Kohli-led India will then play a pink-ball warm-up game before the Test series commences on December 17. Also, the warm-up is likely to be an intra-squad game due to the public health guidelins due to COVID-19.

As per the current plan, the Boxing Day Test will be played as planned in Melbourne from December 26-30 but the New Year Test won’t start on January 3. Instead it will commence on January 7 in Sydney with the tour concluding in Brisbane with the final Test to be played from January 15 to 19.

However, all of this depends on the approval from the state governments. CA is also believed to have waiting for the permission from Queensland Government which is yet to approve international arrival and quarantine from Indian and Australian players from IPL in Brisbane. Currently, for anyone coming to Queensland, 14-day quarantine is mandatory.

Moreover, with the tour scheduled to start on November 25, the players from both the teams will hope to start training during the quarantine period itself with IPL set to end only on November 10.