Australia's tour of India to overlap with the T20I against Sri Lanka

Published - 05 Aug 2016, 20:44 IST | Updated - 05 Aug 2016, 20:44 IST

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MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - NOVEMBER 07: Cricket Australia high-performance manager Pat Howard during game two of the International Twenty20 Series between Australia and South Africa at Melbourne Cricket Ground on November 7, 2014 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Scott Barbour - CA/Cricket Australia/Getty Images,)

The Australian team will be dealing with an unusual prospect as two of their scheduled series will be overlapping as they will have to play a T20 international against Sri Lanka in Australia and a Test match against India in India on February 22nd and 23rd respectively

CA did not expect the Border-Gavaskar Trophy fixture to clash with the T20I against Sri Lanka, but the scenario is that Australia will be playing a T20 game at home and a Test match in India simultaneously.

“We are scenario-planning and we strongly don’t anticipate that an Australian team will be playing the same day as another Aussie team,” Howard told Foxsports.com.au.

Also read – BCCI announce dates for Australia’s tour of India

It was always on the cards because of the tight schedule nowadays after the advent of Twenty20 cricket. He said that the schedule has been tight over the past couple of years. “The schedule will continue to be tight, and has been for the last couple of years,” Howard said. “There have been contingency plans discussed. The preparation clashes which happened in the past, I can absolutely see happening again,” he added.

Feb-22, 2017: Australia v Sri Lanka, 3rd T20I at Adelaide
Feb-23, 2017: India v Australia, 1st Test at Pune
— CricTracker (@Cricketracker) October 21, 2016

Howard said Test cricket remains Australia’s priority, which means that some other players will be featuring in the T20 against Sri Lanka.”I don’t apologize for putting Test cricket first,” he said. “We have to give the guys every opportunity to play well in India, which will mean (other) guys will get an opportunity to play T20 international cricket here,” he concluded.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has announced the dates for the upcoming Australian tour. The first Test will be played between the 23rd and 27th of February at Pune.