India will begin their preparations for the rescheduled fifth Test against England with a practice match against Leicestershire that will kick off on June 23 at the Leicestershire County Ground. The four-day match is important to India's preparations as many of the star players have not played much competitive red-ball cricket, last facing Sri Lanka in March. Meanwhile, England will be heading into the contest after facing the world champions New Zealand in a three-match series.
In more surprising news, Leicestershire confirmed on Wednesday that four players from the Indian team — Rishabh Pant, Cheteshwar Pujara, Jasprit Bumrah, and Prasidh Krishna — will be playing against India in the practice match. These four players will turn be playing for Leicestershire, which will be led by Sam Evans.
"LCCC, BCCI, and the ECB have all agreed to allow the four players from the visiting camp to be part of the Running Foxes side, in order to allow all members of the traveling party to participate in the fixture (subject to fitness)," Leicestershire said in a statement. "The match will be played with 13 players per side to provide further flexibility and help manage bowling workloads," he added.
Rohit Sharma will lead India in the warm-up match as he gears up for his first overseas Test as the skipper of the senior national team. India will be without KL Rahul, who is out with a groin injury sustained just before the recently-concluded T20I series against South Africa at home.
Leicestershire also confirmed that Ravichandran Ashwin, who recently recovered from Covid-19, is yet to arrive in the UK, and that the off-spinner will not be part of the warm-up match. Ashwin missed his flight to England after testing positive even as the rest of his teammates left Mumbai on June 16. Head coach Rahul Dravid, Rishabh Pant, and Shreyas Iyer arrived in England on Monday after completing the T20I series vs South Africa.
Teams
India
Rohit Sharma (Capt), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Cheteshwar Pujara, Rishabh Pant (wk), KS Bharat (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Prasidh Krishna.
Leicestershire
Sam Evans (Capt), Rehan Ahmed, Sam Bates (wk), Nat Bowley, Will Davis, Joey Evison, Louis Kimber, Abi Sakande, Roman Walker.
