The BCCI is organizing three four-day matches for India A against the Lions ahead of the England Tests

India’s national cricket team is all set to lock horns with England’s Lions in three matches in four days ahead of the Test series against the England National Cricket Team, according to a report on ESPNCricinfo.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has organized these games to ensure that the players get used to the English conditions and prepare well for the Test matches.

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India and England to lock horns in 5 Test matches

The Indian national cricket team will face the England national cricket team in a five-match Test series in June, July and August 2025.

The Test series opener will begin on June 20 at Headingley, Leeds and the second game will be hosted by Edgbaston, Birmingham from July 2.

From July 10, the third Test match will begin at the iconic Lord’s Cricket Ground in London and the fourth match will be played at Emirates Old Trafford in Manchester from July 23. The fifth and final Test match of the series will begin on July 31. at London’s Kennington Oval.

India players will get 3 four-day matches before the England Tests

Team India players, who would like to strengthen their case for selection or regain their form, will get a chance to do so in the three four-day matches against the England Lions between the end of the IPL on May 25 and the start of the tests.

The recent performances of the Indian batsmen have been extremely poor, failing miserably in the last three Test series: against the Bangladesh national cricket team and the New Zealand national cricket team at home, and against the Australian national cricket team Down Under.

The poor performance with the bat saw the team go 0-3 at home against the Black Caps and also miss out on the Border-Gavaskar Trophy for the first time in a decade. With this, they were also eliminated from the race at the World Trials Championship final for the first time.

There is no confirmation Rohit Sharma he got a chance to play the Test series against England after his horror show in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, which forced him out of the Sydney Test. Things haven’t gone well for Virat Kohli, who averages 30.72 and since 2020.

Meanwhile, there are doubts about the quality of the England Lions for the matches because the best cricketers could be busy in the T20 Blast. However, the BCCI is confident that the ECB will reciprocate after the Lions faced strong opposition on their shadow tour alongside the Test tour of India in 2023-24, ESPNCricinfo reported. BCCI has reportedly arranged these matches to give batsmen an opportunity to present their case for selection.

Sitanshu Kotak was appointed India’s batting coach

Another step taken by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to end the batting woes, has been the appointment of new batting coach Sitanshu Kotak.

According to a report in TOI, Sitanshu Kotak has been added to the Gautam Gambhir-Lead the support staff as a batting coach. He will start his stint with the home series against England which features five T20Is and three ODIs.

Reportedly, it was Gautam Gambhir who asked the BCCI to add a batting coach to the review meeting after the BGT debacle, and officials complied with his demand.

“Coach Gambhir had asked for a batting coach during the review meeting. Discussions were ongoing since then and now Kotak will be added to the support staff,” said a senior BCCI official who was part of the meeting, as quoted by TOI.

“Most of our batsmen (batsmen), including the seniors, have struggled very badly in the last two series. There is clearly a need to strengthen the support staff of the Indian men’s cricket team from the point of view of of baptism,” said a reliable source.