Sri Lanka Cricket to conduct disciplinary inquiry against batting coach Grant Flower

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) will conduct a disciplinary inquiry against batting coach Grant Flower over his alleged breach of the bio-secure bubble during the island nation's tour of England. According to Daily News, Flower will face disciplinary action once he is out of the quarantine. Upon their return from England, the former Zimbabwe cricketer and Sri Lanka team's statistician GT Niroshan had both tested positive for COVID-19. The SLC was forced to postpone its white-ball series against India on discovering the two positive COVID cases leading to other members of the team also being placed in isolation.

After the detection of the two cases, the Sri Lankan cricket board had to shift their players and staff members to a different hotel in Colombo following a request from the BCCI, who raised the issue keeping in mind the safety of its own players. The white-ball series between India and Sri Lanka had to be rescheduled because of the crisis in the Lankan camp. The series has now been moved to July 18 from the earlier start date of July 13. 

India sends new-look team to Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka and India are slated to play a three-match ODI and as many T20 internationals in Colombo. As far as India is concerned, a new-look team has been selected to take part in the limited-overs series with Shikhar Dhawan as skipper and Bhuvneshwar Kumar as vice-captain. NCA Director of Cricket Rahul Dravid has been appointed by the BCCI to travel with the squad as head coach. Several uncapped players have been given the opportunity to be part of the Sri Lanka tour, including some potential candidates of the upcoming T20 World Cup such as Devdutt Padikkal and Ruturaj Gaikwad. 

India’s squad: Shikhar Dhawan (Captain), Prithvi Shaw, Devdutt Padikkal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Suryakumar Yadav, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Nitish Rana, Ishan Kishan (Wicket-keeper), Sanju Samson (Wicket-keeper), Yuzvendra Chahal, Rahul Chahar, K Gowtham, Krunal Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy, Bhuvneshwar Kumar (Vice-captain), Deepak Chahar, Navdeep Saini, Chetan Sakariya. 

(Image Credit: AP)