­WI to tour Sri Lanka next month

COLOMBO: West Indies will tour Sri Lanka in February for three ODIs and two T20Is, Sri Lanka Cricket has confirmed.

West Indies are expected to arrive in Sri Lanka on February 10, and they will play two warm-up games on February 17 and 20, before the first ODI on February 22.

The first of the two warm-up matches will be an unofficial encounter at the P. Sara Oval, while the second game against a Board President’s XI at Katunayake will mark the official start of the tour.

Apart from the warm-ups, only one of the five limited-overs contests will take place in Colombo. The SSC will host the first ODI, which will be a day game; usually limited-overs matches in Colombo take place at the Khettarama stadium, however the stadium is still undergoing renovations.

The second ODI — a day-night encounter — on February 26 will then see the Mahinda Rajapaksa International Stadium in Hambantota host its first match in almost three years, the last being an ODI between Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe in July 2017.

The final ODI on March 1 will move the action to Kandy, where the teams will stay for the start of the T20I series on March 4. The second and final T20I will be held on March 6. All three matches in Kandy will be hosted at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium.

Sri Lanka have played nine T20Is against West Indies, winning six of them, while their last 10 ODI encounters against the same opponents have seen eight wins and two losses.