Hours after Secretary Jay Shah hinted at a curtailed and delayed start the tour of South Africa, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced that men in blue will travel to the rainbow nation for a three-match long Test and an equally long ODI series.
The board also confirmed that the T20I series planner between the side will take place at a later date in its statement post its 90th Annual General Meeting.
The tour will now commence on December 26, nine days later than the earlier schooled start on December 17.
All the uncertainties surrounding the tour started to deepen once South Africa reported cases of a new variant of Covid-19 which the World Health Organisation termed a “variant of concern”. There were flight banS from South Africa leading to the Netherlands cancelling their ODI series in South Africa but the BCCI asked the India A players to stay put in the country and finish the tour.
Later, Cricket South Africa assured the BCCI of a safe and secure biosecure bubble during the tour and a go-ahead from the BCCI was always expected.