T20I series against Australia doesn't make sense if T20 World Cup gets postponed: BCCI official

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) said that there’s no point playing the bilateral T20I series in Australia if the T20 World Cup later this year gets postponed. Brisbane, Canberra and Adelaide are scheduled to host the series from October 11 to October 17. A board official said that the series was to be a preparatory one for the players ahead of the mega event.

However, the coronavirus pandemic in the last three months or so seemed to have taken a toll on every other cricket tournament across the globe. The T20 World Cup was earlier scheduled to take place from the mid of October to the mid of November.

But due to the COVID-19, the travel restrictions have come into place and it put to doubts the hosting of the tournament. The world’s richest cricket board, rather, wants the team to play a bilateral series against some other team.

BCCI looking for other bilateral series

“If the T20 World Cup does not happen, the 3-match T20I series makes no sense for our players. Everything was decided keeping in line with the schedule of the T20 World Cup. We need to avoid unnecessary travel,” the official was quoted as saying in an exclusive interview with Times Now.

“We will see to it that the T20I series is clubbed with the Test series in December later this year. The postponement of the T20 World Cup will give us the much-needed space to play some other bilateral series,” the official added.

Cricket Australia (CA) recently released the schedule for their next summer, starting August 2020 to February 2021. It includes the T20 World Cup. But Kevin Roberts, the CA chief, said that they are subject to change depending on how the situation is at that point in time. Nearly four months remain for the T20 World Cup to start.

The ICC meeting took place a few days ago, and reports of postponing the event came to the fore. Nevertheless, nothing concrete has been announced thus far. Apart from the T20Is, India are also set to play a four-match Test series in Australia, starting December 3.