The Indian cricket team is all set to face England Lions in three four-day games ahead of the England Test tour later this year, ESPNCricinfo reported on Thursday (January 16).
The BCCI has organized these games to ensure that the players acclimatize to English conditions and prepare well for the Test matches.
India and England are due to square off in a five-match Test series, slated to get underway on June 20 at the Headingley in Leeds. The series will conclude with the Oval Test match, starting on July 31.
The players of the Indian team, who would want to make their case strong for selection or regain their form, will get the chance to do that in the three four-day games against England Lions between the end of the IPL on May 25 and the start of the Test series.
In particular, the performances of the Indian batters have been extremely poor in Test cricket lately. The listless display with the bat led to the side facing a 0-3 whitewash at home against New Zealand and 1-3 defeat in Border-Gavaskar Trophy for the first time since 2014-15.
With this outcome, Team India also got eliminated from the race to the World Test Championship final for the first time in three editions.
There is no confirmation on Rohit Sharma getting the opportunity to play the Test series against England after his flop show in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, where he scored just 31 runs in five innings at an abysmal average of 6.20 -- the lowest by a touring captain on Australian soil.
The Indian captain was so low on confidence that he stepped aside from the fifth and final Test match at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
The heat is also on Virat Kohli, who finished the tour of Australia with an average of 23.75 and scored only 440 runs in 21 Test innings at an average of 23.15 last year. As a result, his career average has dropped to 46.85 after 123 Tests.
Meanwhile, there is doubt over the quality of the England Lions for the matches because the top cricketers might be busy in the T20 Blast. However, the BCCI is confident that the ECB will reciprocate after the Lions were given formidable opponents on their shadow tour alongside the Test tour of India in 2023-24.
England Lions' opposition last year featured Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel, Akash Deep and Prasidh Krishna, all of whom went on to make Test debut for India in the last one year.
(With ESPNCricinfo Inputs)
