Japan’s senior men’s cricket team will visit Sri Lanka for a preparatory tour for its upcoming T20 World Cup Asia–EAP Regional Final.
Japan Cricket Association’s Chief Operating Officer, Alan Curr, confirmed the tour plan to Sportstar on Thursday.
The Japanese side will face a Sri Lankan team, which is expected to feature a combination of Emerging XI and under-19 players. The tour will run from August 2 to 10.
Curr expects the Sri Lanka tour will help his side assimilate better in Oman, which will host World Cup qualifiers in October.
“I think it will be a good opportunity to really test ourselves against a stronger opposition. We will get a feel of what we might experience in Oman, particularly when it comes to temperature.
Also, the pitch we play on at home is quite a low, slow surface [Unlike in Sri Lanka]. I think this opportunity is going to be a big positive for us,” said Curr.
The tour will consist of seven T20s, with Magonna hosting five of them, while the other two will be played in Colombo. JCA is also in talks to add one more game in Magonna to an existing match-day.
Japan has been slotted in Group B, alongside Kuwait and Nepal, in the Asia–EAP Regional Final. The top two teams from each group will qualify to the Super Six stage, from where the top three will seal their place in the 2026 T20 World Cup.
Curr admitted that the altered qualification pathway, which has seen East Asia Pacific and Asian countries clubbed together, has made Japan’s World Cup hopes more challenging.
“We have to acknowledge that the new qualification process does make life a little bit harder for us. We were very much targeting Papua New Guinea as the team to beat.
But now we’ve got to look at Oman, Nepal, UAE, Kuwait and so on. There are a lot of good sides in the Asia region. It is what it is. We have to sort of look to raise our game even higher,” added Curr.
Japan’s Sri Lanka tour schedule
August 2nd – Maggona
August 3rd – Maggona
August 5th – Maggona
August 6th – Maggona
August 7th – Colombo
August 9th – Maggona
August 10th – Colombo