Players wanting to stake claim or to regain form for India’s tour of England will get three four-day matches against England Lions between the end of the IPL on May 25 and the start of the Tests on June 20.India’s batters playing hardly any multi-day cricket outside Test matches has emerged as a point of contention in the fallout of a disastrous season. In 2024-25, India ended their dominant unbeaten series streak at home with a 3-0 whitewash against New Zealand followed by a 3-1 defeat in Australia, the first time they have lost the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in 10 years. For the first time in three editions, India failed to make the World Test Championship (WTC) final, which will now open up time for even Test regulars to play for India A.The batting was in such disarray in Australia that the captain Rohit Sharma even “opted out” of the Sydney Test. He also said he was not retiring and not “going anywhere”. It can be a long way back into the side when you consider yourself to be not good enough to play a specific Test. The obvious question can be: what has changed between then and now that you return into the squad and potentially be the captain?The heat is also on Virat Kohli, who has averaged 30.72 and scored only three hundreds since 2020, to work on his game after he was dismissed off the outside edge in each of his innings in Australia and had no off-side scoring options off the back foot.There is only one Ranji Trophy game they – and indeed the youngsters – can play before they join the ODI side for the series against England. The English County Championships go into a break to provide a window for the T20 Blast exactly during the gap between the IPL and the Tests in England.The window for the T20 Blast might raise a question over the quality of opposition India A might get but the BCCI is confident that the ECB will reciprocate after the Lions were given a strong opposition on their shadow tour alongside the Test tour of India in 2023-24. The BCCI has an arrangement for shadow tours of the A team around the Test tours with both ECB and CA.England Lions’ opposition last year included Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel, Akash Deep and Prasidh Krishna, all of whom went on to play Tests for India later in the year. When India toured Australia, their opposition included Scott Boland, Sam Konstas, Beau Webster and Nathan McSweeney, all of whom played during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.The exact dates and opposition remain to be finalised, but the BCCI expects a Lions team of similar strength in the lead-up to the Tests in England in 2025. It is learnt that the BCCI has offered the batters these matches as an opportunity to present their case for selection. Whether they play and how they do there is likely to be considered by the selectors when they pick the squad.
