Amid anti-CAA protests, India and Sri Lanka to play first T20 at Guwahati today

Guwahati: Amid relentless Anti-CAA protests in Assam, the first T20 match between India and Sri Lanka will be played in Guwahati on Sunday.

The opening match of the T20 series will be played at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium in Guwahati.

Ahead of the clash, the Men-in-Blue geared up for the opening fixture with a “light warm-up” session in the evening. However, Sri Lankan team skipped the training session in Saturday morning due to bad weather conditions in the morning.

Adequate security arrangements has been made by the administration to avert any disruption as the whole stadium has been turned into a fortress with Rapid Action Force(RAF), local police stood on guard covering the entire stadium.

“We are fully geared up to host the match at the start of the new year. Security arrangements has been made as per the protocol which international match demands,” M P Gupta, Police Commissioner, Guwahati said in a media interaction. Amidst Anti-CAA protests in Assam, there were apprehension about hosting the match at Guwahati.

“We never thought of cancelling the match at any moment. We are preparing for it from last two months and everything has been arranged as per plan. We are ready to host the match,” Devajit Lon Saikia, Secretary, Assam Cricket Association said.

Mr Saikia said that the till now 27,000 tickets has been sold out and he is hopeful that the match will be a total sellout. India have won their last two T20 series’ by a 2-1 scoreline as they edged the West Indies in their most recent matches in December. Sri Lanka will come into this first T20 on the back of a 3-0 whitewash against Australia in their last series. (UNI)