The New Indian Express ·
India vs Afghanistan: Focus on gruelling schedule, workload amidst return of Bumrah, Washington and Nitish from injury
CHENNAI: Less than 72 hours after spending five days in the gruelling heat and humidity of Chennai during the Duleep Trophy final, at least two among Ishan Kishan, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and Tilak Varma will take the field against Afghanistan in the first T20I on Sunday.
This is not news. It was well known as soon as they expressed their keenness to play in the final. However, the significance of it lies in the fact that this marks the beginning of a long and gruelling two months for Indian cricketers across formats.
After three 'away' T20Is against Afghanistan in New Delhi, the Shreyas Iyer-led team will travel to Japan to play in a lone T20I with a four-day gap. Then, they will remain there for the Asian Games presumably till the final on October 3. Seventy two hours after the scheduled final, India will start their five T20Is against West Indies in Lucknow on October 6. That series will go on till October 17 before an Indian team take the field in Christchurch on October 22 for five T20Is against New Zealand which will end on November 1. And this is just the T20I team.
