BCCI organizes three four-day games for India A against Lions ahead of England Tests

India National Cricket Team are all set to lock horns with the England Lions in three four-day games ahead of the Test series against England National Cricket Team, according to a report in ESPNCricinfo.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has organized these games to ensure that the players get used to English conditions and prepare well for the Test matches.

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India and England to lock horns in 5 Test matches

India National Cricket Team will be going head-to-head with the England National Cricket Team in a five-match Test series in June, July, and August 2025.

The Test series opener is all set to begin on June 20 at Headingley, Leeds and the second game will be hosted by Edgbaston, Birmingham from July 2.

From July 10, the third Test match will start at the iconic Lord's Cricket Ground in London and the fourth match will be played at the Emirates Old Trafford in Manchester from July 23. The fifth and final Test match of the series will start on July 31 at the Kennington Oval in London.

India players to get 3 four-day games before England Tests

The players of the Indian team, who would want to make their case strong for selection or regain their form, will get the opportunity to do that in the three four-day matches against England Lions between the end of the IPL on May 25 and the start of the Tests.

The recent performances of the Indian batters have been extremely poor, and they have failed miserably in the last three Test series - against the Bangladesh National Cricket Team and the New Zealand National Cricket Team at home, and against the Australia National Cricket Team Down Under.

The poor performance with the bat led to the side facing a 0-3 whitewash at home against the Black Caps and they also lost the Border-Gavaskar Trophy for the first time in a decade. With this, they also got eliminated from the race to the World Test Championship final for the first time ever.

There is no confirmation on Rohit Sharma getting the opportunity to play the Test series against England after his horror show in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, which forced him to opt out of the Sydney Test. Things have not been good for Virat Kohli, who has averaged 30.72 and since 2020.

Meanwhile, there is doubt over the quality of the England Lions for the matches because the top cricketers might be busy in the T20 Blast. However, the BCCI is confident that the ECB will reciprocate after the Lions were given strong opposition on their shadow tour alongside the Test tour of India in 2023-24, reported ESPNCricinfo. Reportedly, BCCI has arranged these matches to give opportunity to batters to present their case for selection.

Sitanshu Kotak named India's batting coach

Another step taken by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to end the batting issues, has been the appointment of the new batting coach Sitanshu Kotak.

According to a report in TOI, Sitanshu Kotak has been added to the Gautam Gambhir-led support staff as the batting coach. He will start his stint with the home series against England which features five T20Is and three ODIs.

Reportedly, it was Gautam Gambhir who asked BCCI to add a batting coach at the review meeting after the BGT disaster, and the officials fulfilled his demand.

"Coach Gambhir had asked for a batting coach during the review meeting. Discussions were ongoing since then and now Kotak will be added to the support staff," said a senior BCCI official who was part of the meeting, as quoted by TOI.

"Most of our batsmen [batters], including the seniors, have struggled badly in the last two series. There's clearly a need to strengthen the support staff of the Indian men's cricket team from the batting point of view," said a reliable source.