Team India to tour West Indies after the Champions Trophy

Team India soon after the conclusion of the Champions Trophy 2017 in England where they will aim to defend the title will play the West Indies in a long limited-overs series. The two teams are slated to play 5 ODIs and a Twenty20 International in the bilateral series. The first ODI will be played on June 23 and the only T20I is scheduled to be played on July 9.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) have agreed to play the series 5 days after the conclusion of the Champions Trophy in England. While the Indian team will fly down to the West Indies after summing-up of the 8-team elite tournament; the hosts in the meantime will be playing Afghanistan at home since they haven’t qualified for the Champions Trophy ranked at No.9 in the ODI Team Rankings.

This is not the first time Team India will play a series immediately after the Champions Trophy, last time around when they won the tournament in 2013, MS Dhoni & Co. flew to the Caribbean Islands to play a tri-series with Sri Lanka as the third team and returned home with two trophies.

The ODI series if utilised by the hosts is prospectively a great chance for them to earn a few points and reduce their 8 rating points gap with Pakistan placed at No.8 in the rankings to ensure they make a cut for the World Cup 2019 automatically and do not have to go through the exhaustive Qualifications with the lower ranked teams and the Associate nations.

Team India had earlier toured West Indies for a 3-match Test series which was followed by a 2-match T20I series in the United States. The upcoming with be the 4th bilateral series between the two teams in the last four years.

Schedule of the tour:

1st ODI, Queen’s Park Oval, June 23

2nd ODI, Queen’s Park Oval, June 25

3rd ODI, Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, June 30

4th ODI, Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, July 2

5th ODI, Sabina Park, July 6

Only T20I, Sabina Park, July 9