By mutual consent, Cricket South Africa (CSA) and Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) agreed to leave a Test and cover five ODIs by considering the World Cup to be started next year.
The tour of South Africa to Sri Lanka which gets in July underway was supposed to have only three Tests, but both cricket boards have mutually agreed to play ODIs and one-off T20 Cricket.
Ashley de Silva, SLC CEO said, “It was done by considering next year’s World Cup. In the next ten months, we have to play Test cricket a lot. We wanted to ensure good balance of ODI as well.”
Along with South Africa, Sri Lanka is also going to host England for bilateral series and is also scheduled to tour New Zealand, West Indies, South Africa and Australia over the ten months to come. Some of those tours will include Test matches only. According to De Silva, the mutual tour to South Africa next year will cover five ODIs, two Tests, and 3 T20 internationals as well.
In Test cricket, Sri Lanka have played really well these days with the center of attraction being finishing the unbeaten run of Pakistan in UAE since the gulf region became the adopted home of Pakistan in the year 2010.
However, they tried hard in limited-over cricket and suffered three whitewashes of 5-0 last year to South Africa, India, and Pakistan. Sri Lanka also lost to Zimbabwe first ever ODI series in the year 2017.
The team couldn’t qualify for the finals last month of the Nidahas Trophy, a T20 tournament between Bangladesh and India. Currently, they are ranked 8th in T20Is and ODIs.
The Proteas arrived on July 4 in the island and are going to play warm-up in Colombo before they travel to Galley to play the first Test on July 12. They will play the second Test in Colombo at Sinhalese Sports Club.
In Dambulla, the first two ODIs will be played after the next two games in Pallekele. The last game will be played in R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo which is also going to host T20 International one-off.
South Africa, which is ranked number two in the world in Test cricket, has successfully beaten Sri Lanka in their last tour to win a two-match series by 1-0.
Sri Lanka has planned to host South Africa for five one-day internationals, two Tests, and one-off T20 from July onwards, according to the Sri Lanka cricket board.
The Proteas thrashed Australia in their recent home Test matches by 3-1. They will land on the island country in early July for sixth tour. The first Test is starting on July 12 in Galle and the second starts July 20 at the Sinhalese Sports Club ground in Colombo.
The limited-overs battle starts on July 29 with an ODI in Dambulla. The series will complete at the R.Premadasa Stadium with a T20 showdown on August 14 in Colombo. In Sri Lanka, South Africa claimed wins of the series during 1993 and 2014.
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