Virat Kohli
captain of india Virat Kohli Said that his team wanted to play a first-class match for the five-Test series against England in August, but their request was turned down for reasons not known to them.
The Indian team, which lost the final of the Word Test Championship against New Zealand, went into a marquee clash without a first-class match, while the champions were drawn with a two-Test series against England.
The Indian team will disperse on Thursday for a three-week break from the bio-bubble to prepare for the Test series beginning on August 4 and regroup in Nottingham on July 14.
Asked if some first-class matches would have been better, the captain said it depends on the people who have made the itinerary.
“It’s not up to us,” he said.
“We obviously wanted a first-class game, which I think has not been given to us. I don’t know what the reasons are,” the straight-talking Indian captain said during the post-match virtual media conference.
This will mean that there will be intra-squad simulation games once again but the Indian captain feels that three weeks of preparation for the series will be good enough.
“The preparation time will be enough for us to get ready for the first Test,” Kohli said.
To put things in perspective, it was the BCCI that asked the England and Wales Cricket Board to cancel the two official first-class games that India were to play in the month of July for the Test series.
“We had a shadow tour of India A which was to overlap with the tour of our senior team. In fact, we had two official first-class games between India and India A that were scheduled to be held.
A BCCI source on the condition of anonymity said, “But then we came with a bigger team and after discussions with the ECB the matches were called off.”
While the Indian captain would have envisioned a first-class game against the county sides or the England Lions (the ‘A’ side), this would not be possible as the home season is currently underway in the UK.
The County Championship is on and currently, it is the domestic T20 tournament ‘Vitality Blast’ and will be followed by the much awaited ‘The Hundred’.
It would have been difficult for India to get a quality opposition team that would have helped them prepare for the Test series.
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