BCCI Treasurer Arun Dhumal explains why Team India will tour Sri Lanka in July this year
Team India will play the ICC World Test Championship Final in Southampton on June 18, following which they will take on England in a 5-Test series, starting August 4. India's Sri Lankan tour will most likely happen in the last week of July.
Because of the COVID-19 restrictions, the Indian squad in the UK will not be able to travel to Sri Lanka and be available for the Test series against England as well. Thus, in a unique development, two different Indian squads will be touring at the same time.
In an exclusive live chat with Indranil Basu on Sportskeeda India's Facebook page, BCCI Treasurer Arun Dhumal said that the board made the call because of the FTP (Future Tours Programme) schedule and financial needs.
"See as you know the cricket world is under tremendous pressure for the last one-and-a-half year given this COVID pandemic, lot of FTP has been canceled which has put lot of strains on these associations all over the world. Until and unless you do these tours, we can't make up, and it would be very difficult for all these boards to come out of their financial struggle that they are going through," said Arun Dhumal.
Dhumal pointed out that Team India has excellent bench strength that allowed the BCCI to plan two international tours at almost the same time.
Team India had to miss Sri Lanka tour last year also: Arun Dhumal
Arun Dhumal mentioned Team India's Sri Lankan tour was initially planned for 2020. But because of the pandemic, the boards had to call off the series.
With many white-ball specialists available to play, they could form a different squad for the Sri Lankan tour, the selection committee felt.
"We had to miss Sri Lanka tour last year also. So, we need to work out on that and since our team that is going to England is primarily for Tests, we could have made up a team for these white-ball matches. So, that is why we thought we should do our bit to make sure Sri Lankan board and we can play white-ball cricket in time," added Arun Dhumal.