Returning the favour: Sri Lanka to host India for Test series next year

Returning the favour – India will tour Sri Lanka for Test series next year

Having agreed for a 5-match ODI series at such a short notice, Sri Lanka will now benefit by hosting India for a 3-match Test series next year, which was earlier scheduled to take place in India.

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) secretary Arjuna Ranatunga said that since Sri Lanka have agreed to visit India for a 5-match ODI series after West Indies pulled out of the tour, India will return the favour by visiting the island nation for a Test series next year. Earlier, it was India who were supposed to host Sri Lanka for the series in August 2015.

The switching of hosts will be beneficial for the home cricket board, and is estimated to fetch SLC around $7-8 million, Ranatunga told ESPNCricinfo.

“As we are obliging India with a five-match ODI series there next month, India are obliged to return the tour next year and we have switched the Test series,” Ranatunga said.

The series next year will only include Tests, and no ODIs or T20Is.

Despite the increasing number of ODI matches played between India and Sri Lanka, the two teams haven’t played a Test since August 2010, when India toured Sri Lanka for Muttiah Muralitharan’s farewell series.

Sri Lanka haven’t visited India for a Test series since 2009.

According to the new Future Tours Programme (FTP), after 2015, the next Test series scheduled between the two nations is scheduled in August 2017, when Sri Lanka will again host India for 3 Tests, 5 ODIs and one T20I.