Cramped SA series awaits Team India

With the Indian and South African cricket boards agreeing to allot just 45 days for the bilateral series, a cramped schedule involving four Tests, five One Day Internationals and three Twenty20 International matches is awaiting Team India from first week of 2018.

According to a top BCCI official, the two boards (Board of Control for Cricket in India and Cricket South Africa) are expected to finalise the dates in next two days and the delay in this regard has only been because of cramped schedule.

As per the Future Tours and Programmes, India were supposed to be in South Africa by the third week of December and play four Tests including the Boxing Day and New Year apart from five ODIs and three T20s. But with BCCI being adamant to spoil SA's party, India's home season was stretched till December 24, thus forcing CSA to look for either hosting Pakistan or Zimbabwe for an one-off Test to continue their long tradition.

Despite the snub, the CSA kept hoping that at least the New Year Test featuring India can begin as per schedule.

However, BCCI has indicated to the hosts that their team will arrive only after spending a couple of days at home.

As per the information available with DNA, Virat Kohli & Co will arrive in SA by December 28. However, BCCI now demands that a practice match is needed before the actual series starts and that in all possibility will rule out playing New Year Test in Cape Town.

Instead, the first Test is likely to begin only by January 6 and the tour is likely to finish by the end of February third week as India also have quadrangular T20 series to be played in Sri Lanka as part of their Independence Day celebrations.

The request from the Indian team management also stems that at least three to four days rest is needed between the Tests. However, the ODIs and T20s might be cramped to honour the commitments between the two boards.