With several important members of the Indian Test united rested during the ongoing T20 series against South Africa and the forthcoming two-match series in Ireland, the BCCI’s social media handles have shared pictures of several players having touched down in London and already beginning warm-ups for the solitary Test to be played in Edgbaston, Birmingham.
With the tour of England in 2021 having been curtailed due to a Covid-19 breakout in the team camps on the eve of the fifth and final Test, the series will be completed in the first week of July this year, with the Indians looking to preserve their 2-1 advantage and potentially complete a memorable overseas victory in England. Following the longest-ever IPL season, many senior members of the Test squad were exempted for limited-overs duties to be given time to reach England and begin to acclimatize.
The BCCI's post includes senior players such as Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja, Jasprit Bumrah, Umesh Yadav, and Mohammed Shami, as well as the recently recalled Cheteshwar Pujara, who is coming off a strong stint in county cricket with Sussex, having lost his place for the Test series against Sri Lanka earlier this year. Also spotted were Prasidh Krishna, Navdeep Saini, Shubman Gill, Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur, and Hanuma Vihari, as well as the team’s strength and performance coach, Soham Desai. The pictures were taken on the Middlesex training ground alongside Lord's in London.
{{/usCountry}}The BCCI's post includes senior players such as Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja, Jasprit Bumrah, Umesh Yadav, and Mohammed Shami, as well as the recently recalled Cheteshwar Pujara, who is coming off a strong stint in county cricket with Sussex, having lost his place for the Test series against Sri Lanka earlier this year. Also spotted were Prasidh Krishna, Navdeep Saini, Shubman Gill, Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur, and Hanuma Vihari, as well as the team’s strength and performance coach, Soham Desai. The pictures were taken on the Middlesex training ground alongside Lord's in London.
{{/usCountry}}However, Twitter fans couldn't help but wonder the identity of a mystery man who was seen training with the team. The man was running next to Kohli in the pictures, which put fans in a fix. Here are some of the tweets.
For those wondering, the man training is Soham Desai, the team's strength and conditioning coach who took over from Shankar Basu.
The Indian team will be led by Rohit Sharma and coached by Rahul Dravid, who will join the squad at a later date. Also joining them will be Rishabh Pant, who is captaining the team against South Africa, and Shreyas Iyer, also part of that team.
Both England and India have seen wholesale changes to their leadership group in Tests between the fourth Test at the Oval in September and the teams likely to take to the pitch at Edgbaston. Then-skipper Kohli has been relinquished of his duties while Ravi Shastri has been replaced by Rahul Dravid. Meanwhile, Joe Root has handed over captaincy duties to Ben Stokes, and Chris Silverwood was replaced by Brendon McCullum. Stokes and McCullum have guided England to a series victory at home over world champions New Zealand this month.