The COVID-19 travel restrictions has been a boon to Indian umpires who do not get to officiate in Test matches or any high pedigree series. As the current international series won't be having neutral umpires, all the umpires involved will be from the host nation. As a result, the umpires for England's tour to India will be seeing all Indian umpires take charge.

India's only ICC Elite Panel Umpire at the moment, Nitin Menon has been given the green signal to be at the center of the action for the first two Tests. Alongside Menon, there will be two debutant umpires in Anil Chaudhary and Virender Sharma.

The 55-year-old from Delhi, Chaudhary has officiated in 20 ODIs and 28 T20Is so far. Virender Sharma doesn't have as much experience as an umpire, with just 2 ODIs and 1 T20I under his belt. However, he has played 50 First-Class games and 40 List A matches for Himachal Pradesh from 1990/91 to 2006.

Sharma has been given the nod despite standing in just 3 matches at the highest level is that, according to ICC, any international umpire can be implied to officiate in a Test match.

ICC told Cricbuzz, "International Panel umpires officiate in Tests too. Recent appointees to the Elite panel - Joel Wilson, Michael Gough and Nitin Menon - had all officiated in Tests before making it to the Elite panel. India presently has four on the International Panel."

There will be another Indian umpire who hasn’t officiated in a Test match yet. C Shamshuddin, who has stood in 43 ODIs and 20 T20Is, will be the third umpire for the first Test. However, it will not count as a Test debut for Shamshuddin.

The match referee for the first Two tests will be Javagal Srinath, who is a stalwart, both as an Indian cricketer and a match referee. He has officiated in a total of 53 Tests, 223 ODIs and 83 T20Is since 2006.

The first Test between India and England will begin at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai from February 5.

(With inputs from Cricbuzz)