Sri Lanka start their short tour of India with a 3 Match T20 series which begins on Friday. The first match off the 3 match series will be played at Lucknow while the remaining two games will be played Saturday and Sunday at Himachal Pradesh’s Dharamsala ground. The series could also see more crowd being allowed back in after Kolkata let the crowds come back in. With Coronavirus getting into its endemic stages in India, the series is anticipated to be a huge one. One player though will not feature in the 3 match series due to testing positive for Coronavirus twice.
Star player to miss whole series –
Sri Lankan leg spinning all rounder Wanindu Hasaranga will miss the entire T20 series against India. He has pulled out due to testing positive for Coronavirus for a second time. Hasaranga had already tested positive during Sri Lanka’s tour of Australia earlier this month. He missed a few games, but he has tested positive for a 2nd time which now rules him out of the series against India. A source from SLC said “Wanindu Hasaranga who is in isolation after contracting COVID-19, has once again returned positive when a rapid antigen test (RAT) was conducted yesterday (Feb22) A PCR result confirmed the same too. He was first found to be positive during the RAT conducted on Feb 15th, 2022. The player was transferred to Melbourne from Canberra and will remain in isolation until he returns a negative PCR test report”
Sri Lanka in India for short series –
Sri Lanka will be touring after a period of nearly 2 years. They had toured India in early 2020 before the world was gripped by COVID-19. Apart from the 3 match T20 series, the Sri Lankans also play a two match test series. The first test will be played at Mohali which will b Kohli’s 100th test. They then play the 2nd test Bangalore which is to be a day and night affair. Sri Lanka last played India in July ,2021. They lost the ODI series to India by a margin of 2-1 before winning the T20 series 2-1.
