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India A is set to play three four-day matches against England Lions ahead of India's tour of England which will start on June 20, ESPNCricinfo reported.
However, the dates of the matches are not been finalised but they will be played between the end of the IPL on May 25 and the start of the Test series. Indian batters have failed to perform in the recent few series whether it is at home or away against New Zealand or Australia. This would be the perfect time for the batters to get back to form and the players who are willing to take part in the Test series can also feature in these matches. Skipper Rohit Sharma and star batter Virat Kohli came under fire for an underwhelming Border-Gavaskar Trophy campaign and overall a very disappointing 2024/25 season of Test cricket. Sharma (31 runs in three matches and five innings at an average of 6.20) and Virat Kohli (190 runs in five matches and nine innings at an average of 23.75 with a century) lacked big time with the bat. Virat fell for the outside-off-stump trap throughout the series, most notably by pacer Scott Boland who dismissed him four times. The 2024-25 season of Tests has been miserable for 'Ro-Ko' (Rohit and Kohli). While Rohit scored just 164 runs in eight matches and 15 innings at an average of 10.93 with best score of 52, Virat scored a shambolic 382 runs in 10 matches and 19 innings at an average of 22.87, with just a century and fifty each. There is also chance for youngsters to make their spot in the national team as many of them have done it through the same series last year. Many players played against the England Lions last time around and later got a chance to play for the national team which includes the likes of Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel, Akash Deep and Prasidh Krishna in 2024 Team India lost their winning streak as they got whitewashed 0-3 against New Zealand at home which was followed by a 1-3 loss to Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 away from home. With the BGT series loss, India lost the opportunity to qualify for the World Test Championship (WTC) Final at Lord's. After the BGT series, there is a home series against England, where India will play 5 T20Is followed by 3 ODIs. Top seamer Mohammed Shami made a return to the India squad as the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Saturday announced the 15-member squad for the upcoming T20I series against England. The five-match T20I series will kick off on January 22 in Kolkata. The second and third matches will be held on January 25 and 28 in Chennai and Rajkot, respectively. The fourth game of the series will be played on January 31 in Pune. Mumbai will host the final match of the T20I series on February 2. India's squad for the T20I series: Suryakumar Yadav (C), Sanju Samson (WK), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Rinku Singh, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Axar Patel (VC), Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammad Shami, Varun Chakravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Washington Sundar, Dhruv Jurel (WK). (ANI)
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