Frustrated by huge losses in New Zealand and Australia, the BCCI has finalized to arrange three four-day matches in England ahead of the Tests against England. This is to let the players play with the red ball primarily before finalizing any selection for the Test squad. The schedule and venues are yet to be worked out, but the matches against the England Lions will likely start in England after the IPL final on May 25. The first test is set for Leeds on June 20 as the beginning of the tour to England.
The board perceives the preliminary series as important for Team India which lost 3-0 to the Kiwis at home and now 1-3 to the Aussies overseas.
“We toured Australia with a similar ‘A’ side prior to the Les Wisden Border-Gavaskar Trophy. This is an excellent opportunity for the players to adapt themselves to English conditions after playing red-ball cricket after some time,” said a BCCI source to PTI on the condition of anonymity.
Some marquee names from the Indian unit are preparing to play Ranji Trophy games against the likes of Rishabh Pant, Shubman Gill, and Yashasvi Jaiswal when the matches kick off on January 23.
However, some will play at most one round of the two remaining rounds of the Ranji Trophy as the white-ball series against England is set to begin on January 22 in Kolkata with the T20Is and ODIs.
Now, with Indian batsmen as their star turn, much attention is being diverted to the domestic cricket after almost all of them- including the veterans Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli- went through a very poor series in Australia.
“We don’t have many red-ball matches now as the IPL starts right after the series in England; therefore, sending the squad without majorly preparing before an important series is simply not wise, for England is always a difficult place for batters due to the conditions,” he added.
We need to remember that a few of the young Indian players like Sarfaraz Khan, Akash Deep, Dhruv Jurel along with Prasidh Krishna had remarkable performances against the Lions last year, right before the start of the home series with England.
They all participated in the next series with England, New Zealand and Australia.
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