India’s tour of Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe delayed: BCCI have made an official announcement regarding the postponement of the two tours.
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BCCI have officially postponed India’s tours of Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe in the wake of the novel COVID-19 outbreak. While the murmurs were doing the rounds from quite sometime, an official announcement has confirmed the delay in both the tours.
While India’s tour of Sri Lanka was scheduled to begin on June 24, their tour of Zimbabwe was scheduled for August 22. India, who were slated to play three ODIs and T20Is in Sri Lanka, would have traveled to Zimbabwe for three ODIs.
My first shot at 180 landings. Top exercise 👌 pic.twitter.com/HmtR05OlNW
— Virat Kohli (@imVkohli) May 26, 2020
Originally slated to begin on March 29, the Indian players have already missed the 13th season of the Indian Premier League due to the threat caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
India’s tour of Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe delayed
“The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Friday announced that the Indian Cricket Team will not travel to Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe owing to the current threat of COVID-19,” BCCI secretary Jay Shah said in a media release on Friday.
While India had hosted Sri Lanka for three T20Is in January, the last they toured Sri Lanka was in 2017 when they played three Tests, five ODIs and a T20I.
As far as touring Zimbabwe is concerned, India last visited there in 2016 under the captaincy of veteran wicket-keeper batsman Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
It is worth mentioning that the three T20Is played against Sri Lanka in January were originally announced to host Zimbabwe but couldn’t proceed as planned after ICC banned Zimbabwe last year.
It was as recent as yesterday that a BCCI source had quashed reports of India opting to tour Sri Lanka in August. If the BCCI has postponed the tour of Zimbabwe, chances of India touring South Africa in August also seem grim.