Team India will assemble in Chennai on 27 January ahead of the first Test against England that begins at the M. Chidambaram Stadium on 5 February. It has been learnt that the players would reach Chennai in batches—from different cities—and enter the bio-bubble from 27 January. They will undergo a week-long quarantine during which the Indian team management will devise its strategy for the series.
“We have done exceptional job in Australia (where India won Test series 2-1). We have savoured, enjoyed each and every moment, every part of our success. But we need to forget this, leave this behind, look forward to the future of England tour. We would have our plans for it. We have time. We have to quarantine for a week before the series and that is when all the planning would be done,” said India bowling coach Bharat Arun.
India play a full series against England beginning 5 February. The first Test will be held in Chennai from 5-9 February. The second Test will be at the same venue from 13-17 February before the action moves to Ahmedabad for the last two Tests (24-28 February and 4-8 March). That will be followed by a five-game T20I series in Ahmedabad and three-game ODI series in Pune.
“We are quite aware that England are a very tough team. We will have to be at our best to beat them,” added Arun. “For us, every match is a huge challenge. Can’t really say England batting is better than Australia. Australia, we played them in their home conditions. I would like to quote what colleague Sridhar had said earlier—’it took us two days to forget the 36 all out. Yes we were depressed, we had to put that behind us and work on the future and move on’. That is what we will do against England.”
The England team will also enter the bio-bubble from 27 January when they arrive after completing the ongoing second Test against Sri Lanka in Galle that ends on 26 January.
However, players coming to India from England, like all-rounder Ben Stokes, pace bowler Jofra Archer and opener Rory Burns, will arrive a bit earlier as they will land straight from England. The trio is not part of the England team that is currently touring Sri Lanka for the Tests. Stokes, in fact, on Sunday, posted a picture of himself travelling on a plane with a caption: “See you soon India”.
Former England skippers Nasser Hussain and Michael Vaughan are, however, not happy with England’s squad selection for the first two Tests against India in which they have rested wicketkeeper-batsman Jonny Bairstow.
“I would say it’s a concern that one of England’s best three players of spin—I would say Bairstow is alongside Joe Root and Ben Stokes in that—has been given a boarding pass home and the others are going to Chennai. I’d have to rethink,” Hussain wrote in his column for Sky Sports. “England fans switching on when it is turning and England are 20/2 may well have the argument, ‘I want to see our best batsman against spin, or one of them, in Bairstow.”
“If the next Test after this series was Brisbane in the Ashes, would we send our best side? So why when it’s the first Test against India, one of the great sides, aren’t we sending our best team? It is that balancing act of being fair to the public and winning what’s in front of you and long-term planning all year,” he added.
Bairstow, Mark Wood and Sam Curran have been rested for the first two Tests against India, while Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer and Rory Burns—who are not part of the Sri Lanka series—have been recalled.
“The only player in England’s Top 3 that’s playing the subcontinent conditions with any control or calmness is resting for the first 2 Tests against the best Team in world at home #India!!! The world is officially mad,” tweeted Vaughan.
Meanwhile, former England captain Kevin Pietersen has asked the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to print an e-mail that India batting great Rahul Dravid had written to him and give it to openers Dom Sibley and Zak Crawley.
Pietersen posted screenshots of the mail on his twitter handle on a day when Sibley and Crawley fell on five and a duck respectively to Sri Lanka spinner Lasith Embuldeniya in the second Test in Galle, Sri Lanka.
“Hey @englandcricket, print this and give it to Sibley & Crawley. They can call me to discuss it at length if they want…!” wrote Pietersen in the tweet.
Pietersen had reached out to Dravid after a poor tour of Bangladesh in 2010 after which the latter had sent the mail to the former batsman. Dravid had advised Pietersen to bat without the front pad in the nets against his then-team mates Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar so that he stops committing the front foot.