An official invitation has been sent to veteran Indian batter Virat Kohli to attend the Ram Temple Inauguration in Ayodhya on January 22. According to reports from Cricbuzz, Virat Kohli has been granted permission by the BCCI to skip a day of their planned England Tests camp and travel to Ayodhya instead.
According to the report, after the third T20I in Bengaluru with Afghanistan, everyone, including the coaches, will take a two-day break. On January 20, the team management and the Test squad will reunite in Hyderabad.
A four-day camp awaits before the initial Test against England initiates at Uppal Stadium on January 25. On January 21, Virat Kohli attends a net session and then has a day off visiting Ayodhya.
England’s lack of warm-up matches in India raises questions ahead of Test series
England’s cricket team is expected to reach India on January 21. This is just three days before the first Test match. Ben Stokes and his team are preparing in Abu Dhabi before their arrival in India. However, some cricket experts are criticizing them for not preparing enough for the Indian conditions.
Ex-England bowler, Steve Harmison, thinks this could cause a serious problem. He believes England could lose all five games to India. He mentioned his concerns on TalkSport:
“If England go in 3 days before, they deserve to get beat 5-0. They really do. I’m an old man, that is what they are going to say, the times have changed, the game has changed, but I tell you, preparation has not changed. You can’t go into India underprepared.”
Steve Harmison
The cricket community is still waiting to see if Rohit Sharma and co. would be negatively impacted by the Bazball philosophy.