Although the COVID-19 situation in England is slowly getting better and they have hosted international teams, India are expected to pull out of the tri-series due to the rise of CVID-19 cases in the nation. According to the report of DailyMail, The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) are looking at other options for their series in September if in case India couldn’t travel due to the rise of COVID-19 cases.
Alongside the pandemic, the board has not even started the process to take government permissions for the tour, according to the news of InsideSports.
“Situation is bad, we have not been able to plan even any training camps for the team, even the selectors appointment is also pending for the Indian women team. Though it is yet to be officially discussed but we don’t see tour happening in these circumstances,” said one of the senior coaching staff member of the team.
The tri-series involves South Africa as well alongside England and India and in India’s absence, England and South Africa could play a bilateral series including ODI and T20I matches. While the 50-over World Cup is scheduled to take place in New Zealand early next year, the focus will be on the ODI series and a 5-2 split has been suggested as well.
India were scheduled to tour England in June but it didn’t happen because of the COVID-19 situation. In earlier news, it was said that the ECB is scheduled to host the series from 2nd week of September and India will fly for England in the middle of August. After reaching there, they will complete the mandatory quarantine period before playing in the series. However, all those plans are set to be cancelled now.
Meanwhile, BCCI is yet to appoint the new selection committee for the Indian women’s team. All five members of the previous committee led by Hemlata Kala have finished their term. They last met for the T20 World Cup selection earlier this year. However, on January 18, the BCCI had invited applications for all the vacant posts, alongside two each in the senior and junior men’s selection committees as well.
While the vacancies in senior men’s panel have been filled up, the board is yet to take a call on the appointment of the new committee despite more than 18-20 former international women cricketers have applied for the post.
While a 24-strong England squad have been practising for the past four weeks, the ECB wants them to play the same number of matches, even if India doesn’t take part. Even, some reports in the English media also suggested that, like ongoing England vs West Indies men’s series, the women’s tri-series will also be played in a bio-bubble and no crowds will be there as well.
