T20 World Cup will commence from last week of October but we will be able to witness India playing T20 matches prior to the tournament with Australia in September and with South Africa during Durga Puja.
India will host 3-match T20 series against Australia starting from September, 20. The next two matches will be played on Sep, 23 and Sep, 25. The venues of this series will be at Mohali (20 sep), Nagpur (23 sep), Hyderabad (25 sep). Just after 3 days, Men in blue will face South African team in T20 series starting from September, 28.
BCCI feel that playing T20 series before the much awaited tournament will aid the team. India will face Proteas on 28th Sep in Trivandrum in the first T20 game. The second and third game will be played on 1st Oct (Guwahati) and 3rd Oct (Indore).
Three days hence, the 2nd-tier team of India will face the African team in ODI series starting from October, 6 at Ranchi while the main team will take off for Australia. The remaining two ODIs will be played on Oct, 9 (Lucknow) and Oct, 11 (Delhi).
A BCCI source stated that they have two national teams with similar strengths available. Thus the 3-match ODI series will be commenced just when India’s main team will fly for Australia.
The source further added that the 3rd game was set to be played in Kolkata but due to Durga Puja, Cricket Association Bengal won’t be able to organize the police deployment during the festival. Hence the match venue has been allocated to Delhi.
The Full Schedule for the series against Australia and South Africa:
T20Is vs Australia
Sep 20: Mohali
Sep 23: Nagpur
Sep 25: Hyderabad
T20Is vs South Africa
Sep 28: Trivandrum
Oct 1: Guwahati
Oct 3: Indore
ODIs vs South Africa
Oct 6: Ranchi
Oct 9: Lucknow
Oct 11: Delhi
