India vs Leicestershire: Pant, Pujara and Bumrah to represent hosts in warm-up match

The special pre-match arrangement between BCCI, ECB and the Leicestershire County Cricket Club (LCCC) has been done to ensure that all members of India’s touring party get adequate match practice.The match will be played with 13 players per side to provide further flexibility and help manage bowling workloads.

“Leicestershire CCC will welcome members from the India touring party into their side for tomorrow’s four-day tour match at Uptonsteel County Ground. India superstars Cheteshwar Pujara, Rishabh Pant, Jasprit Bumrah and Prasidh Krishna will all team up with the Leicestershire squad, captained by opening batsman Sam Evans. LCCC, BCCI and the ECB have all agreed to allow the four players from the visiting camp to be part of the Running Foxes side, in order to allow all members of the travelling party to participate in the fixture (subject to fitness),” the LCCC said in a statement.

Apart from Evans, Pujara, Pant, Bumrah and Prasidh, the other players in the LCCC are — Rehan Ahmed, Sam Bates (wk), Nat Bowley, Will Davis, Joey Evison, Louis Kimber, Abi Sakande and Roman Walker.

It will be the only warm-up game for the Indian team before the July 1-5 Edgbaston Test against England, which is the postponed fifth game of the series of last year. India lead the series 2-1.

On Wednesday, skipper Rohit Sharma, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant, Shubman Gill, Hanuma Vihari, Jasprit Bumrah and Shardul Thakur among others practised for over two hours at the Uptonsteel County Ground in Leicester.

Meanwhile, it has been learnt that R Ashwin, who missed the flight earlier due to Covid positive result, is on his way to England, a Cricbuzz report said.

India’s selectors have named Navdeep Saini, Kamlesh Nagarkoti and Simarjeet Singh as the net bowlers for the tour. The first two named are with the squad already while the departure of Singh is believed to have been delayed.

Squads:

India: Rohit Sharma (Capt), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, KS Bharat (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav.

Leicestershire CCC: Sam Evans (Capt), Rehan Ahmed, Sam Bates (wk), Nat Bowley, Will Davis, Joey Evison, Louis Kimber, Abi Sakande, Roman Walker, Cheteshwar Pujara, Rishabh Pant, Jasprit Bumrah and Prasidh Krishna.