England's cricketers will play two Tests behind closed doors in Galle in January, following a period of quarantine in Hanbantota, after the schedule for their rearranged tour of Sri Lanka was confirmed by the ECB on Wednesday.

The tour, which is England's penultimate series in the inaugural ICC World Test Championship, had to be postponed in March following the escalation of the Covid-19 outbreak, which caused the abandonment of that original tour midway through England's warm-up game in Colombo.

The details of the rearranged trip, for which biosecurity and travel protocols have been agreed, was subject to some speculation in recent weeks, with the ECB having to postpone their original confirmation of the arrangements on December 2 due to the need for further ratification from Sri Lanka's ministry of health and Sri Lanka Cricket.

The squad will arrive in Sri Lanka on January 2, on a chartered flight from London to Hambantota in the south of the island, where they will be permitted to train and prepare for five days from January 5-9 at the Mahinda Rajapaksa International Cricket Stadium.

The first Test will take place between January 14-18, with the second Test following on January 22-26 before the squad departs from Hambantota the following day.

England's Test squad is expected to be confirmed in the coming days, and comes in the wake of the abandonment of England's ODI tour of South Africa, due to concerns about the bio-secure integrity of the team hotel in Cape Town.

Sri Lanka are due to arrive in South Africa next week ahead of the Boxing Day Test.