India skipper Virat Kohli on Wednesday (June 23) said his team was keen to play first-class before the scheduled five-Test series against England in August-September but their request was turned down for reasons not known to him.
Kohli’s comment came after India suffered a comprehensive 8-wicket defeat at the hands of New Zealand in the inaugural Word Test Championship (WTC) final.
While the Kiwis entered the WTC final on the back of a 1-0 series win over England, Indian players relied on training sessions and an intra-squad match to get themselves ready for the marquee clash.
Notably, Team India will take a three-week break from the bio-bubble, starting June 24. They are expected to return to the bubble on July 14 for the England Test series, starting August 4.
Asked if a few first-class games would have been handy, Kohli said that it depended on people who formulated the itinerary.
"That doesn't depend on us. We obviously wanted first-class games which I believe has not been given to us. I don't know what the reasons for that are," the Indian captain said during the post-match virtual media conference.
However, he feels three weeks of preparation will be good enough for the series.
"The preparation time will be ample for us to be ready for the first Test," Kohli said.
According to a PTI report, BCCI had asked the ECB to cancel two official first-class games that India was supposed to play in the month of July as part of preparation for the England Test series.
"We had a shadow tour of India A which was supposed to overlap with our senior team's tour. In fact, we had two official first-class games between India and India A that was supposed to be held.
"But then we came with a jumbo squad and after discussions with ECB, the matches were cancelled," a BCCI source was quoted as saying by PTI.
(With PTI inputs)
