India tour of Sri Lanka to commence on July 13
The dates for India’s much-awaited limited-overs tour of Sri Lanka have been announced. The teams will play three ODIs and three T20Is between July 13 and 25.
India and Sri Lanka will be playing three ODIs on July 13, 16 and 18, respectively. The ODIs will be followed by three T20Is, which will be played on July 21, 23 and 25.
The Indian players, who are part of the tour to England for the World Test Championship (WTC) final and the five-Test series, will not participate in the Sri Lanka tour.
Shikhar Dhawan and Hardik Pandya are in the fray for India's captaincy for the limited-overs tour. Bhuvneshwar Kumar and a fully fit Shreyas Iyer are other captaincy options.
India are currently ranked No. 3 in the ICC ODI Rankings, while Sri Lanka languish in ninth spot after their series defeat in Bangladesh.
Rahul Dravid to be India’s head coach in Sri Lanka
In the absence of head coach Ravi Shastri, bowling coach Bharat Arun and batting coach Vikram Rathour, National Cricket Academy (NCA) head Rahul Dravid will coach the Indian side on their July tour of Sri Lanka.
The former India captain was India’s batting consultant during the England tour in 2014.
“The Team India coaching staff will be in the UK, and it is best that the young team is guided by Dravid as he has already worked with almost all of India’ A’ boys. The comfort the youngsters share with him will be an added advantage,” an official was quoted by ANI.
Dravid was appointed NCA head in 2019. Before that, he was the coach of India’s Under-19 and A teams since 2019.
He was the coach of the India U-19 side that won the World Cup in 2018 and is often credited for India’s phenomenal bench strength.