India's request for practice matches denied by the Sri Lankan board

The Sri Lanka cricket board has denied the request of India to play practice matches ahead of the Series. BCCI had recently declared a 20-member squad for the Sri Lanka series. In the absence of Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan will lead the team in the upcoming limited-over series against Sri Lanka. Indian pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar will be the vice-captain of the team.

BCCI president Sourav Ganguly has confirmed that Rahul Dravid will coach the Indian team on their Sri Lanka tour. Shikhar Dhawan and Co. have already begun their pre-Sri Lanka tour quarantine in Mumbai from June 14. Once the Indian contingent reached the Island nation, all the players and the support staff will have to undergo quarantine for three more days. After completing the isolation, all the players will commence their training session in small groups from July 2. The Series will be played in the absence of senior players as they are currently preparing for the WTC final.  

Team India allowed playing intra-squad games

According to reports, the Sri Lankan board had confirmed that the Indian players wanted to play some practice games. However, taking into consideration the COVID-19 situation, the visitors are allowed to play intra-squad games and not against a Sri Lanka A team. The Indian cricket team will play three intrasquad games in Colombo as preparation for the limited-over series against Sri Lanka.

Earlier this week, the schedule for the three-match ODI series and three-match T20I series between India and Sri Lanka was confirmed. The three One Day International games will take place on July 13, 16, and 18. On the other end, the T20 international matches will commence on July 21. All six games are going to take place at the R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo. The officials have decided to conduct all the matches in one venue. Thus, this will reduce travel amid the second wave of COVID-19. 

India's Full Squad

Shikhar Dhawan (Captain), Devdutt Padikkal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Prithvi Shaw, Suryakumar Yadav, Krunal Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Nitish Rana, Ishan Kishan (Wicket-keeper), Manish Pandey, Sanju Samson (Wicket-keeper), Hardik Pandya, Yuzvendra Chahal, Rahul Chahar, K Gowtham, Deepak Chahar, Varun Chakravarthy, Bhuvneshwar Kumar (Vice-captain), Navdeep Saini, Chetan Sakariya.

Net Bowlers: Ishan Porel, Arshdeep Singh, Sai Kishore, Sandeep Warrier, Simarjeet Singh 

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