Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli could play India A games in England ahead of five-Test series

With the 18th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) currently underway, international cricket will take a backseat for a couple of months – for Indian cricket fans at the very least. India’s international run in the 2023-24 season, which included Test series losses against New Zealand and Australia, ended on a triumphant note with the Rohit Sharma-led Men in Blue winning the ICC Champions Trophy in the UAE .

The Indian team will not be returning to action until their tour of England immediately after the conclusion of IPL 2025, in which they will be playing a five-Test series for the Pataudi Trophy.

However, with the BCCI having cracked the whip on the Indian team following their disastrous tour of Australia with a series of guidelines for players as well as support staff , several senior cricketers might end up playing India A’s tour game against England Lions before the main event.

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India A will play two four-day games against England Lions starting from 30 May and 6 June respectively. While the ongoing IPL season concludes with the final on 25 May, the league phase ends with the double header on 18 May.

“The first four-day match will be hosted at The Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence in Canterbury from May 30. The second match is scheduled to begin a week later on June 6 at the County Ground in Northampton,” the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said in a statement.

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England-bound players whose franchises fail to reach the IPL playoffs could end up playing the first tour game that gets underway on 30 May. As for those players whose teams will be in action during the playoffs, they will get enough time for the second match in Northampton.

Why Rohit and Kohli cannot afford to sit out of tour matches any longer

Rohit and Kohli were among several senior cricketers featuring in the Ranji Trophy earlier this year, with the BCCI making it compulsory for all players to make themselves available for domestic cricket from time to time after suffering a 0-3 whitewash against New Zealand at home followed by a 3-1 defeat in Australia.

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Rohit and Kohli have been in fine touch in recent one-dayers, including in the ICC Champions Trophy where the Men in Blue won their third title with a victory over the Black Caps in the final.

However, with their Test numbers having been abysmal during the 2024-25 season, the BCCI is likely to persuade both players to get themselves attuned to English conditions before the five-Test series gets underway in Headingley, Leeds on 20 June.

Rohit, who is also likely to continue as Test captain despite the team’s atrocious run in recent assignments, had scored just 31 runs at an average of 6.2 in the Australia Test series and later opted to sit out of the fifth Test in Sydney. Kohli, meanwhile, had fallen prey to deliveries outside the off stump match after match and eventually finished with 191 runs at an average of 23.75 despite scoring a match-winning century in the first Test.

Senior wicketkeeper-batter KL Rahul had played the second four-day game between India A and Australia A in Melbourne ahead of the five-Test series that got underway on 22 November in Perth. Despite scoring 4 and 10, Rahul opened the innings in Rohit’s absence in Perth and was persisted with at that position for three of the four remaining matches.

Meanwhile, latest reports suggest that Karun Nair could be on the plane to England to play India A’s games against the Lions. The Karnataka batter was in excellent form during the Ranji Trophy, in which he finished as the fourth-highest run-scorer with 863 runs at an average of 54 with four centuries.

Nair has not represented India since the fourth Test against Australia in Dharamsala in March, 2017 – just three months after he became only the second cricketer after Virender Sehwag to score a Test triple hundred.