Mithali Raj
The Indian women's team in all likelihood will resume its bilateral engagements with a tour of Sri Lanka, which the BCCI is trying to schedule after the women's IPL from November 4-9 in the UAE.
A senior BCCI official confirmed that the women's team could tour the island nation right after the WIPL (Challengers series) but a big bone of contention could be the 14-day mandatory quarantine in Sri Lanka.
"There is a bright a chance that India will be travelling to Sri Lanka after women's IPL for a three-match ODI and three match T20 series," a senior BCCI source told PTI on condition of anonymity.
"Obviously, quarantine duration is an issue as we saw that Bangladesh men's team's tour was postponed. However we are very hopeful that our women's team will be playing Lanka," the official added.
It is expected that just like the men's team will directly fly to Australia from Dubai, the women cricketers are also expected to leave for Sri Lanka after completing their WIPL engagement which concludes on November 9.
Women's team ODI skipper Mithali Raj welcomed the move, happy that her team will be back in India jersey.
"It's really exciting that in all probability, Indian women's team would start their international engagements even before the men's team. The 'WIPL' will be a nice preparation for the tour. I would like to thank BCCI for their efforts which shows that they care for women's cricket," the ODI skipper told PTI.
She conceded that girls will be rusty initially due to the break but it won't be long before they are all back in match mode.
"Look, all the girls for the past one month have been practising in their respective cities but initially there could be some rustiness which is understandable as you regroup.
"As you converge together as a team, you take a few days to get your bearings. I am confident that it won't take long," Mithali added.
However the skipper didn't comment whether a lengthy quarantine in Sri Lanka will affect the rhythm if they don't get to train.
"Look, I don't know about the logistics part so it won't be fair on my part to comment on quarantine rules. The Sri Lanka tour I believe is still two months away, so you can expect that situation would improve and just like sports, business, everything is gradually reopening," she concluded.
