The Cricket South Africa on Thursday (August 6, 2026) revised the schedule of India women’s team tour later this year to accommodate three T20Is in addition to a Test and three ODIs.
Key Factors
Now, the Indian team will spend an extra week in South Africa to play the T20I series between December 26 and 30. India had toured South Africa in March-April this year for a T20I series which they lost 1-4. Indian batters will be keen to fine-tune their skills against spin during a three-day warm-up match against a local Sri Lanka XI at the Nondescripts Cricket Club in Colombo on Friday (August 7, 2026) as they gear up for a two-match Test series against the Islanders next week. The Islanders have a capable unit of tweakers, particularly in home conditions, and thus this warm-up match assumes massive importance for Indian batters ahead of the first Test at Galle on August 15. India’s last Test series in Sri Lanka was in 2017, and the team composition has undergone vast changes in the last decade.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka also announced a strong SLC XI that contained some frontrunners to make it to the Test squad. Because many of them are playing the red-ball format for the first time on these shores, the three-day match will give them valuable first-hand idea about local conditions, and it is important. The two teams then clashed in the T20 World Cup in England, where SA beat India to dent their chances of entering the semifinal. In fact, only Rahul, Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja in this squad have appeared in Test matches in Sri Lanka. Led by Sonal Dinusha, who has played three Tests for SL, the squad features pacers Vishwa Fernando, Lahiru Kumara and spinners Isitha Wijesundara and Ramesh Mendis.
