Sri Lanka tour of India to start with T20Is instead of Tests, Bengaluru to host day-night Test

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is learnt to have honoured Sri Lanka Cricket’s (SLC) request to reverse the itinerary of the two teams’ upcoming series including two Tests and three T20Is. Instead of starting with the Tests, the teams will now play three T20Is, followed by the red-ball games, the second and final one of which will most likely be a day-night affair in Bengaluru.

As per the original schedule, the series was to start with the first Test at Bengaluru’s M Chinnaswamy Stadium from February 25 followed by the second Test at Mohali’s IS Bindra Stadium from March 5 before the three T20Is on March 13, 15 and 18 in Mohali, Dharmsala and Lucknow.

SLC, however, had requested their Indian counterparts to consider starting the series with the shorter format in a bid to ensure an easier, more convenient bubble-to-bubble transfer of their players from Australia, where Sri Lanka is set to play five T20Is until February 20.

It is understood that the final dates and scheduling of the tour will be officially released by the BCCI in the due course. Dharmshala, instead of the originally-planned Mohali, is likely to host the T20I series opener and also the ensuing encounter, while Mohali is set to host the third and final T20I as well as the first Test, followed by the second in Bengaluru.

The move is no surprise given the current Covid-19 situation in India, which is currently battling the third wave of the pandemic. The BCCI, after all, had only recently limited the venues from the original of six to two for the home series against West Indies – with Ahmedabad’s Narendra Modi Stadium playing host to the ODI leg followed by three T20Is at Kolkata’s Eden Garden – to ensure smooth logistical arrangements and avoid any Covid-19 related disruptions.

Those arrangements and the intentions behind notwithstanding, the series has been hit by Covid-19 already, with at least 5-6 members of the Indian camp, three of them believed to be players, having tested positive for Covid-19 only four days before the scheduled start of the ODIs in Ahmedabad.