India now has two cricket teams preparing simultaneously to compete in England and Sri Lanka. The Indian team, led by Virat Kohli, has arrived in England to compete in the World Test Championship final against New Zealand from 18th June to 22nd June with a reserve day on 23rd June. After that they will play a five-match Test series against England in July. On the other hand, India’s second team, led by Shikhar Dhawan, will visit Sri Lanka in July. The Indian squad will play three One-Day Internationals (ODIs) and three Twenty-20 matches in Sri Lanka. This isn’t the first time two Indian cricket teams have traveled to different countries to compete. 23 years earlier , in 1998, BCCI had sent two separate Indian teams to compete in the Commonwealth Games (CWG) and the Sahara Cup. The schedule of the Commonwealth Games (CWG) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia clashed with the Sahara Cup against Pakistan in Canada. That year the Sahara Cup was organized in Canada.

This was the first time and the last time that cricket was included in the CWG. Under the captaincy of Ajay Jadeja, the team with Sachin Tendulkar, Anil Kumble, VVS Laxman and others travelled to Kuala Lumpur for CWG. The other squad with Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, Javagal Srinath, and Venkatesh Prasad under the captaincy of Mohammed Azharuddin went to Canada for the Sahara Cup. In 1998, the BCCI dispatched half of the top players to each venue and India had lost at both the venues. Lot of people criticized the BCCI for their decision to divide the team at that time. However, this time the BCCI has not decided to divide the team, but has sent its best team to the England tour and the World Test Championship final. The second best team has been sent to Sri Lanka.

Tags

• Cricket
• england
• tour
• match
• India
• srilanka

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