India To Tour Sri Lanka For 3 ODIs & 3 T20Is In July 2024

image-lpjfc02dIndia to tour Sri Lanka for ODIs & T20Is (Twitter)

After reigning supreme in the Asia Cup 2023 in September, India will return to the Island shores of Sri Lanka in July 2024 for a limited-overs series against the subcontinent rivals. The Lankan Lions will host India for a scheduled white-ball series, featuring three ODIs & three T20Is.

Notably, it will be India's second such bilateral trip to Sri Lanka without Test matches scheduled since 2021, when an alternate Indian squad missing Test regulars busy in England won the ODI leg 2-1 but suffered the same fate in T20Is after Covid disrupted the squad and left it heavily understrength and imbalanced under coach Rahul Dravid and stand-in skipper Shikhar Dhawan.

India haven't played Tests in Sri Lanka since their dominant tour of 2017 where under former captain Virat Kohli's captaincy, the team retained an astonishing 9-0 streak across formats, whitewashing the struggling hosts in 3 Tests, 5 ODIs and the standalone T20I. 

India To Travel To Sri Lanka For ODIs & T20Is

The looming white-ball trip had been part of the originally planned Future Tours Programme (FTP) for 2024-27. With India and Sri Lanka forming a cordial relationship in the cricketing front and Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) being a longstanding supporter of the BCCI interests in ICC matters, the Men in Blue have been regular travelers across the Indian ocean in the past two decades. 

Since the series in July 2024 will be held following a quick turnaround from the men's T20 World Cup in June in the Caribbean & USA, it is highly likely that Team India will be resting key senior figures for the assignment, including legends Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma as well as critical cogs Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammad Shami.  

According to the FTP, India are also due to play scheduled World Test Championship (WTC) fixtures in Sri Lanka in August 2026 with a two-match series planned between the two rivals for the next cycle of the premier red-ball tournament.