West Indies tour of Australia postponed, players will be available for IPL
Australia’s Twenty20 International series against the West Indies, which was scheduled for the first half of October has officially been postponed. Cricket Australia announced the same on their official Twitter handle, specifying that it is a joint decision with the Cricket West Indies.
The T20I series between the two teams was supposed to serve as a warm-up for the T20 World Cup in Australia. However, with the global tournament being postponed owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, the two boards have decided to call off the series between the teams.
"Together with @windiescricket, we have agreed to postpone the Twenty20 series originally scheduled for Queensland in October," Cricket Australia tweeted.
"Serving as warm-ups for the ICC T20 World Cup, the series will now coincide with the rescheduled T20 World Cup in Australia, in either 2021 or 2022," the tweet read.
With the T20I series getting postponed, the leading T20 players from both Australia and the West Indies are now set to play in the IPL, which begins on September 19 in UAE.
Australia-West Indies Series might be played just before the T20 World cup
The West Indies tour of Australia was set to include three T20Is at Townsville, Cairns and the Gold Coast on October 4, 6 and 9 respectively. It was supposed to act as a warm-up for the Men's T20 World Cup, initially scheduled to commence on October 18.
Cricket Australia's official twitter handle cited that both the teams would want this series to coincide with World Cup preparations. Now that the T20 World Cup, in Australia, has been postponed to 2021 or 2022, the short T20I series between the hosts and the West Indies might happen just before that.
The T20I series between Australia and India, originally slated to take place from October 11-17, is also unlikely to happen under the current circumstances. However, there has been no official announcement regarding the fate of this series.
The next assignment of the Australian men's team, as per the current schedule, is a limited-overs tour of England in early September. It is yet to be confirmed whether the team will go through on this tour.