Mahendra Singh Dhoni will have his wish fulfilled as Cricket South Africa (CSA) have agreed to a tour of India to include two Tests but in a compressed scheduling.
South Africa will indeed play two Tests and three ODIs as proposed by the BCCI and it will also see the breaks between matches reduced to make the itinerary tighter than usual.
South Africa’s tour of India itinerary schedule:
Feb 6-10 2010 First Test (Nagpur)
Feb 14-18 Second Test (Eden Gardens, Kolkata)
Feb 21 First ODI (Jaipur)
Feb 24 Second ODI (Gwalior - originally Kanpur)
Feb 27 Third ODI (Ahmedabad)
The schedule goes against the original wherein South Africa were scheduled to play only five ODIs. However, in view of the need for India to play more Tests to retain their ranking, the BCCI made a drastic turnaround. For South Africa, it gives them another opportunity to close in on the ranks towards the no.1 Test team tag taken away from them.
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