England Board Likely to Give Kohli & Co Warm-up Against County Side

Virat Kohli had made known his displeasure at the current schedule after the WTC final.

Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara will take the crease on Reserve Day of the WTC Final between India and New Zealand. 

Image: PTI

The Indian men's cricket team in England will likely get to play a warm-up fixture ahead of the five-Test series against the hosts after the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said it is mulling over a request from the Indian cricket board for a 'warm-up match against a County Select XI'.

"We are aware of a request from the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) to play a three-day warm-up match against a County Select XI as part of the Indian Men's Test teams build-up to the five-match LV-Insurance Test series," said an ECB official to IANS.

"We are working through the operations and COVID-19 protocols to ensure we are able to deliver this and will confirm in due course," added the official.

As per the current schedule, the Indian team is on a three-week break, which started after the World Test Championship (WTC) final last month, and will have a camp in Durham from July 15. The Test series begins on August 4 in Nottingham.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and restrictions, Virat Kohli & Co was expected to play only a couple of infra-squad games and have no outing against any local county side.

However, Kohli had made known his displeasure at the current schedule after the WTC final.

"We obviously wanted first-class games, which I believe have not been given to us. I don't know what the reasons for that are," Kohli had said on June 23 after India had lost a game.

The ECB official said that the Indians will travel to Nottingham on August 1.

"The Indian Test team will report to Emirates Riverside, Durham for their pre-Test camp on 15 July and will prepare at the venue until 1 August before heading to Trent Bridge, Nottingham, ahead of the first Test starting on 4 August," he added.