Four players from the Indian camp will play for Leicestershire County Cricket Club during a warm-up match ahead of India’s Test match against England. The practice match is scheduled to be played on 23 June 2022 at 3:30 pm at Grace Road, Leicestershire’s home ground. For the last one week, the Indian team has done net practice at this ground. Among the players who have played for Leicestershire are batsman Cheteshwar Pujara, wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant and fast bowlers Jasprit Bumrah and the famous Krishna.
The statement issued by the club said, ‘Leicestershire County Cricket Club, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) have all accepted the four players of the visiting team as part of Leicestershire. It has been agreed to allow it to be made, so that all members of the Indian team can get a chance to play in the practice match.
The statement also said, “Leicestershire will play 13 players in the match to provide further flexibility and help manage the bowling workload.” The Test match against England is to be played from July 1. This Test match was to be played last year, but was postponed due to the outbreak of COVID-19 within the Indian camp at that time. India lead 2-1 in the 5-match series against England.
A lot has changed for both India and England teams since the series was postponed last year. Virat Kohli had stepped down as the captain of the Test team after losing the series against South Africa this year. In his place, Rohit Sharma took over the command of Team India. At the same time, the captaincy of the England Test team was snatched from Joe Root. He was replaced by all-rounder Ben Stokes as the captain of England.
The coaches of both the teams have also changed. Ravi Shastri stepped down last year and Rahul Dravid became the head coach of the Indian cricket team. At the same time, Brendon McCullum was appointed as England’s Test coach after Chris Silverwood was sacked last month.
Indian squad for the warm-up match against Leicestershire: Rohit Sharma (c), Virat Kohli, Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Srikar Bharat (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Mohammad Siraj, Umesh Yadav.
Leicestershire squad for warm-up match: Samuel Evans (c), Rehan Ahmed, Samuel Bates (wk), Nathan Bowle, Will Davis, Joy Evison, Lewis Kimber, Abidin Sakande, Roman Walker, Cheteshwar Pujara, Rishabh Pant, Jasprit Bumrah, Famous Krishna.
