The BCCI has identified seven Indian Test specialists batsmen who will be sent to England to play county cricket to prepare for the inaugural World Test Championship series in July and August.
The Indian cricket team, currently ranked no.1 in ICC Test rankings, will start their ICC World Test Championship journey with a two-Test series against West Indies after the culmination of the ICC World Cup 2019. The team will also be playing three One-Day Internationals (ODIs) and three Twenty20 International (T20I) matches.
Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Prithvi Shaw, Hanuma Vihari, Mayank Agarwal, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ishant Sharma are going to play County Cricket before the World Test Championship campaign begins in Windies. Good move in my opinion?????✌️??
— Shantanu Shrivastava (@DaKingInDaNorff) April 20, 2019
The T20I matches are scheduled in Central Broward Regional Park in Lauderhill, Florida in the USA and the Test series will be a part of the inaugural World Test Championship.
The seven players shortlisted by BCCI are Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Prithvi Shaw, Hanuma Vihari, Mayank Agarwal, Ravichandran Ashwin, and Ishant Sharma.
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According to Pujara’s three-year contract with Yorkshire, he is all set to play there again. A senior BCCI official told PTI that Pujara’s contract is a long term deal between him and the county.
Meanwhile, Rahane has also applied for the permission from BCCI to play for Hampshire and is waiting for the approval of all three Committee of Administrators. One of the administrators, CoA head Vinod Rai has given his approval to Rahane but the other two namely Diana Edulji and Lt General Ravi Thodge are yet to give their approval.
The senior BCCI official further added, “With India set to play against the Caribbean in about fortnight after the end of the World Cup, the BCCI has prepared a proposal wherein their Test specialists can play some red ball cricket in months of June till mid-July.”
The BCCI is talking to some counties that include Leicestershire, Essex, and Nottinghamshire.
At the last Test series in England, the BCCI had discussed with the CEOs of all top counties to grant permission so that their top Test players can play there in summers, reported by the official.
It can be assumed that the BCCI is looking at three to four first-class games for its players before the West Indies series.
The conditions, however, are totally different save that they will be playing with red Dukes which will also be used in the West Indies. They will preferably get game time.
Indian Cricket fans hope that all our seven Test players get to play either Division 1 or 2 of the English county. Also, we hope to see Indian skipper Virat Kohli this time who was supposed to play for Surrey last year but could not do so due to an injury.
