The ICC has appointed Indian umpires for the first two Tests vs England starting from February 05. All the matches from the India-England series will have Indian umpires officiating the matches. Nitin Menon, the lone Elite panel umpire from India, will be an on-field umpire in both games. England will face the Asian giants in a series across formats starting from February 5. Both teams will lock horns in a four-match Test series as a part of the ICC World Test Championship followed by 5 T20Is and 3 ODIs. Chennai will host the first two Tests before both teams move to Ahmedabad for the last two Tests and the five T20Is.
Following their stay in Ahmedabad, both teams will shift their base to Pune for the final leg of the tour where they play three ODIs before returning to England. Meanwhile, the ICC has offered Test debuts for Anil Chaudhary and Virender Sharma, both international panel umpires. While Chaudhary will be standing with Menon for the first Test, Sharma will be officiating with him in the second.
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ICC Appoints Umpires For India-England Series
C Shamshuddin will be the third umpire in the first Test. He is tey to make his Test debut as an umpire. Meanwhile, Anil Chaudhary will be the third umpire in the second Test.
Javagal Srinath is the match referee for both the games, which run from February 5 to 9 and then from February 13 to 17. The match officials for the final two Test matches will be decided later on. Meanwhile, there will be Indian umpires for all the limited-overs games (five T20Is, three ODIs). Their appointments will be made in due course.
The ICC generally appoints neutral umpires for bilateral games but due to the current scenario due to the pandemic, the apex body has suspended the ‘neutral umpires’ policy.
England are heading into the series after clean sweeping Sri Lanka in the two-Test match series at Galle. They are fourth on the World Test Championship points table. In their last tour to India in 2016-17, they lost the Test series 4-0 to Virat Kohli’s men.
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