The much-awaited South Africa tour of India is upon us and we as fans cannot wait to see our Women in Blue back in action. It has been learned that the South African team will reach Lucknow on 27th of February. While the details are yet to be worked out, the teams are likely to play a warm-up game before the start of the ODI series.
Both the teams were scheduled to arrive in the city on Thursday but it is understood that the Proteas will arrive in the country on Saturday. Because of the biosecurity regulations, the Indian players, who will start assembling in Lucknow from today, have been asked to undergo the RT-PCR tests and once they arrive in the city, they will be placed under a strict and mandatory quarantine of six days. Along with this, the players will be tested at regular intervals and once the results of all the tests come back negative, the players will be allowed to enter the bio-bubble.
Locating a venue for this series has been an uphill task for the authorities. Earlier it was reported that the matches will be held at Thiruvananthapuram, only for the KCA to convey their inability to host the matches owing to the stadium being pre-booked for an army recruitment drive. Next it was reported that the series will be held at the Chinnaswamy stadium in Bengaluru which too did not materialize due to unknown issues. The latest venue to be selected, Lucknow, will be hosting its first international women’s fixture for the first time since 2005. The last time this historic city hosted a women’s fixture was between India and England.
This series will see the Indian women’s cricket team back on the field after a whole year. The last international match they played was the finals of the 2020 ICC Twenty20 World Cup on March 8. Post that there has been a drought of international games for the Indian women’s team because of the pandemic. South Africa though are fresh off a series victory against Pakistan at home. The Proteas whitewashed the Women in Green in the ODI series 3-0 and defeated them in the T20Is by a 2-1 margin.
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