The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will have talks with the England and Wales Cricket Board ( ECB ) for arranging some warm-up matches before the main Test series of India vs England in 2021 August. Since the World Test Championship is over, India will look forward to facing the new challenge against Englan. However, they have to wait for 6 long weeks before the high profile Test Series in which the first Test match is scheduled to start from the 4th of August 2021.
Normally teams play few warm-up games leading to long Test series against a big nation but due to this pandemic era and covid protocol, scheduling warm-up games have become almost impossible for any cricket board in the world. Cricketers have to go under two weeks of quarantine ahead of any bilateral Test series and due to COVID protocols, it has become a very tough job to arrange practice/ warm-up matches for the teams.
According to some reports, BCCI will request ECB to arrange a couple of warm-up games before the start of the remarkable clash between India vs England in a 5 match Test series. BCCI treasurer Arun Dhumal talked about this in The Indian Express and said that Jay Shah will speak to ECB over the matter.
“Jay (Shah) will be speaking to ECB and its Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Tom Harrison to arrange two warm-up games before the five-Test match series. The secretary felt that the BCCI should request the ECB to give at least two warm-up games so that players can get in some good match practice before the series starts,” Dhumal told The Indian Express.
Meanwhile, India didn’t get an opportunity to play any warm-up matches before the summit clash against New Zealand for winning the title of World Test Champions. Virat Kohli and company played only one intra-squad match before the final, which eventually New Zealand won by 8 wickets.
India and England will lock horns in 5 match Test series which will begin on August 4 in Nottingham and end on September 10 at manchester. The Indian squad will be freed from quarantine for three weeks and On July 14, they will start their two weeks quarantine process.