Team India players are currently enjoying their holidays in England as BCCI allowed them a 20-day break before the five-match Test series against England.

During the break, most of the players are in London or its surrounding areas and are spending time with their families, while some have also gone to visit the countryside.

After this break, the players of the Indian team will gather in London on July 14. Indian captain Virat Kohli is not missing any chance to work hard and train himself even during the break. The star player shared a video on Tuesday, in which he was seen doing some intense workout.

New cases of Covid-19 are increasing continuously in England and in such a situation, all players and support staff members of India will be given a second dose of vaccination on July 7 and July 9, news agency ANI reported. Indian players have already received the first dose of Covishield vaccine in India.

Reportedly, most of the players are enjoying holiday in London and surrounding areas.  Players who had received the first dose of Covishield vaccine in India are now ready to take the second vaccine. Full immunization of Indian players has become extremely necessary as there have been several cases of the Coronavirus in the England team.

After seven members of the England cricket team, including three players, were found to be Covid positive, it has become more important for the Indian team to be given vaccine doses for their safety.

ECB had to select a completely new team for the limited overs series against Pakistan after seven members, including players in England’s men’s team, tested Covid-19 positive.

After losing the final of the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) Final against New Zealand, Indian cricket team players are currently enjoying a 20-day break with their family in England’s Southampton. After the break, Team India is scheduled to play a five-match Test series against England from August 4, for which the players will enter the bio-bubble in London from July 14 and then start preparing for the Test series.

Before the India vs England Test series, Team India also has to play a three-day practice match against Select County XI. Meanwhile, there are reports that the players of the Indian team will be administered the second dose of the Covid-19 vaccine before entering the bio-bubble.

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News agency ANI has quoted sources as saying that the second dose of Covid-19 vaccine will be given to the players of Team India on July 7 and 9.  The source said, “The second dose has been planned for the cricketers and they will be given the second dose of Covid-19 vaccine on Wednesday and Friday.”

The Indian team touring England has already been given the first dose of the Covidshield vaccine. Covishield has been developed in India by AstraZeneca and Serum Institute of India.

After seven members of the England cricket team, including three players, were found to be Covid positive, it has become more important for the Indian team to be given vaccine doses for their safety.

ECB had to select a completely new team for the limited overs series against Pakistan after seven members, including players in England’s men’s team, tested Covid-19 positive.

India skipper Virat Kohli and boys are currently on a break in the UK ahead of the five-match Test series against England and the cricketers will be administered their second dose of COVID-19 vaccines on July 7 and 9.

Speaking to ANI, sources in the know of developments said the second round of vaccination has been planned for the boys.

“The second dosage has been planned for the cricketers and they will be vaccinated on Wednesday and Friday,” the source said.

While the Team India players are currently on a break after the completion of the World Test Championship, they are set to go into quarantine in Durham from July 14.

The Indian players are also set to play a warm-up game from July 20 to 22 after the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) requested the English and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to arrange for a practice game before the first Test gets underway on August 4.

While speaking to the media in the virtual press conference at the end of the World Test Championship final against New Zealand, Kohli had said his side wanted first-class games ahead of the series against England, but they have not been given that.

Meanwhile, India opener Shubman Gill has been ruled out for eight weeks after he suffered a shin injury post the final encounter at Ageas Bowl in Southampton. Incidentally, pacer Ishant Sharma had suffered an injury to his bowling hand while stopping a ball during the WTC final at the Ageas Bowl and had to get three stitches. But the pacer is set to be fit in time for the England Tests.

“Ishant hurt his bowling hand while stopping the ball and had to get three stitches. But he will be ready for the Tests against England which starts on August 4,” a source had said.

The five-match Test series between India and England, beginning from August 4 is set to be played in front of full capacity crowds after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday announced the easing of COVID-19 restrictions.

The British PM said that they will lift the limit on the number of people attending concerts and sports events.

“We’ll move away from legal restrictions and allow people to make their own informed decisions about how to manage the virus,” Sky Sports quoted British PM as saying.

“From step four we will remove all legal limits on the numbers meeting indoors and outdoors. We will allow all businesses to reopen, including nightclubs, we will lift the limit on named visitors to care homes and the numbers of people attending concerts, theatre, and sports events,” he added.

The matches in the UK have been either played behind closed doors or have been opened to crowds with restricted numbers due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“BREAKING: Full capacities will be allowed back in stadiums from the 19th of July,” England’s Barmy Army supporters of the England cricket team tweeted.

BREAKING: Full capacities will be allowed back in stadiums from the 19th of July  pic.twitter.com/28XDEC2bf7

— England’s Barmy Army (@TheBarmyArmy) July 5, 2021

Reacting to the Tweet, England fast bowler Stuart Broad expressed excitement as he pointed out towards the first Test between the two sides which gets underway from August 4 in Nottingham.

“Trent Bridge 1st Test Vs India,” Broad tweeted.

Trent Bridge 1st Test Vs India  https://t.co/6UzGAnPvIz

— Stuart Broad (@StuartBroad8) July 5, 2021

The WTC final between India and New Zealand last month was played in front of limited fans.

After the WTC final, the Indian team got a 20-day break and the side will regroup in Durham around July 14. The Indian team is also set to play a warm-up game before the series starts. India and England are slated to lock horns in five Tests, beginning August 4.

Meanwhile, opening batsman Shubman Gill Gill injured his shin and has been ruled out for eight weeks. The batsman is unlikely to be a part of the first half of the five-Test series against England.

Team India head coach Ravi Shastri on Thursday took some time off and went to watch Swiss tennis maestro Roger Federer’s second-round match in the ongoing Wimbledon tournament on Centre Court in London.

Federer will lock horns with French tennis player Richard Gasquet in the second round of the tournament on Centre Court.

Shastri shared a picture of him from the stadium on Thursday.

“Great to be back on a sunny day at @Wimbledon. Great tradition. Centre court beckons in a bit,” Shastri tweeted.

Great to be back on a sunny day at @Wimbledon. Great tradition. Centre court beckons in a bit  pic.twitter.com/tZ1PCIzhQr

— Ravi Shastri (@RaviShastriOfc) July 1, 2021

On Tuesday, Federer had survived a scare in his opening match to register a win over Adrian Mannarino.

Federer staged a comeback against Mannarino to level the game before the French tennis player was forced to retire.

The game 6-4, 6-7(3), 3-6, 6-2 was at level with Federer winning the fourth set but Mannarino retired just at the start of the fifth essay and Swiss tennis maestro got a walkover.

In the first set Federer came out with flying colours but Mannarino levelled up against the star player after a dominant second set tie-break.

Mannarino stunned Federer in the third set when he won an easy game but the Grand Slam champion won the fourth set to stage a comeback and was finally given a walkover as he reached the second round of the tournament.

Earlier in the day, Star India player Sania Mirza and her doubles partner Bethanie Mattek-Sands sailed into the second round of the ongoing Wimbledon Championships.

Sania and her American partner easily defeated the doubles pair of Desirae Krawczyk and Alexa Guarachi in the first round of women’s doubles.

Krawczyk, Guarachi gave a tough fight to Sania and Mattek-Sands in the first set however, the Indian tennis star along with her partner clinched the opening set 7-5.

Riding on the winning momentum, Sania and Mattek-Sands thrashed sixth seed pair of Krawczyk- Guarachi in the second set with a 6-3 win to kick off the quest of Grand Slam in style.

The five-match Test series between India and England beginning on August 4 will start the second cycle of the World Test Championship (WTC).

India and England will be locking horns in the first Test from August 4 while Australia will play England in five Tests later this year in Ashes.

According to a report in ESPNcricinfo, these tours will be the only two series having five Test matches in the second WTC cycle.

As per the report, Australia will tour India in 2021 for four Tests. The ICC has not yet decided on the schedule and the venue for the summit clash.

Teams will play three home and as many away series and the tours which were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the opening WTC cycle will not be carried forward.

India will play 19 Tests while Australia and South Africa will lock horns in 15 matches. England will compete in 21 Tests the most by any team in the second WTC cycle.

ICC has decided to give each Test the same number of points. A tie will give each team six points while a draw will earn them four. 12 points will be given to the winning team for each match while one point can be deducted for slow over rates.

“Instead of each series being worth the same number of points, 120, irrespective of whether the series is played over two Tests or five Tests, the next cycle will see each match being worth the same number of points – a maximum of 12 per match,” ESPNcricinfo quoted ICC’s acting chief executive officer Geoff Allardice as saying.

“Teams will be ranked on the percentage of available points they won from the matches they have played.

“The aim was to try and simplify the points system and to allow teams to be meaningfully compared on the table at any point, though they may have played differing numbers of matches and series,” he said.

Virat Kohli-led Team India, which is unlikely to get any practice match against English counties ahead of the five-Test series against England, will instead have a camp in Durham from July 15 in the lead-up to the first Test that begins on August 4 in Nottingham.

The team is currently taking a break after the loss to New Zealand in the World Test Championship final.

“As far as the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) are concerned, their schedule remains the same. They [India] have a camp in Durham from July 15,” said a statement from ECB in response to a query from IANS.

During their stay in Durham in the second half of July, the Indian team will play two four-day intra-squad matches at the County Ground, Riverside, among their extended squad which comprises 24 players, including four standby players.

“We don’t expect this to change,” added the ECB statement.

The Indian team management was expecting county games.

“We obviously wanted first-class games, which I believe have not been given to us. I don’t know what the reasons for that are,” Indian skipper Virat Kohli had said after the conclusion of the WTC final that India lost by eight wickets to New Zealand.

The focus has come on practice matches against county teams after India’s batting was exposed against the New Zealand bowling attack. The top order, including Kohli and No. 3 Cheteshwar Pujara, couldn’t handle the moving deliveries.

It is no hidden fact that the 1983 World Cup-winning captain Kapil Dev shares a cordial relationship with Indian cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar, however, there’s one particular incident that left a scar on their relationship.

The incident dates back to 1984, when England were touring India and the two sides were preparing to lock horns in a Test in Kolkata, which the hosts won by eight wickets. Notably, former India star all-rounder and match-winner Kapil Dev was axed from the side for the Test and the decision was hard to digest for many as he was in his prime form at that time.

Apparently, Kapil was reprimanded for playing rash shots in the previous Test match in Delhi, which India lost.

The second match of the series was being played at the Feroz Shah Kotla (now Arun Jaitley Stadium) and was heading towards a draw on day five. That is when Kapil tried playing an aggressive shot and got out. The last few wickets fell quickly handing England a famous victory.

Kapil was dropped for the next match at the Eden Gardens in Calcutta and it is believed that the Team India selection committee which was headed by Chandu Borde at that time, decided to drop him as a punishment for playing a reckless shot in the previous match.

Notably, skipper Sunil Gavaskar was also a part of the selection committee and Kapil alleged that the opener was responsible for his omission.

However, Gavaskar claimed that he had no role to play in the axing of the legendary all-rounder.

Interestingly, the Kolkata crowd were not happy about the fact that Kapil Dev was dropped and they even chanted – ‘No Kapil, No Test’.  They even threw rotten vegetables and fruits at Gavaskar. Following the incident, the little master even vowed that he would never play at the Eden Gardens again.

Gavaskar denied any involvement in the controversial move

In March 2021, Gavaskar clarified that it wasn’t his proposal to drop Kapil from playing XI, adding this has been spread like some sort of a “myth” for a long time.

“As far as Kapil Dev is concerned, this has been something a myth that has been spread for a long, long time. I did not propose dropping Kapil Dev. I was part of the selection committee as the Indian captain and as the Indian captain, I can join the selection committee I do not have a voting right. I’m just co opted to the selection committee. The proposed action to drop Kapil there was proposed by somebody else, another selector,” Gavaskar told Sports Today.

“So I have to only say one thing that I might be a lot of things I might be whatever, but I’m not stupid to drop my only match-winner. To propose dropping my only matchwinner? How could I have even…. How can anybody even think that! I’m that stupid to think in terms of dropping my match-winner?” Gavaskar questioned.

Gavaskar also clarified that all they share is mutual respect for each other and there’s no bitterness from that incident whatsoever.

ECB Director of Cricket Ashley Giles on Tuesday said that eleven English players involved with various franchises in the suspended Indian Premier League, are unlikely to be available for the remainder of the tournament if the cash-rich T20 League is rescheduled in the year 2021.

After the suspension of IPL 14 due to multiple Covid-19 cases being reported inside its bio-bubble, there have been reports claiming that the T20 League can be resumed this year either before T20 World Cup (October-November) and second half of September or else after mid-November.

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However, England players involved in the suspended IPL will be busy touring Bangladesh and Pakistan in September and October, while right after the T20 World Cup, they have to play against Australia in the Ashes.

“We’re planning on involvement of England players in England matches. We’ve got a full FTP schedule. So if those tours to Pakistan and Bangladesh are going ahead, I’d expect the players to be there,” Giles said as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.

“None of us knows what a rearranged IPL looks like at the moment, where it’s going to be or when. But from when we start this summer against New Zealand, our programme is incredibly busy,” Giles said.

“We’ve got a lot of important, high-profile cricket including the T20 World Cup and the Ashes. And we’re going to have to look after our players.”

England players are likely to enter their latest bubble from around May 28. Giles said he hopes as the England summer progresses, players will be given a “a bit more freedom” from bio-bubbles. He also hinted that England might give chance to some new young cricketers against New Zealand.

“What we do know, and what’s not going to change, is the weight of cricket. Given the Ashes series (this winter), we don’t know what conditions that’s going to be played in at the moment with regard to a Covid environment, but we are going to need a bigger group of players still,” he said.

“We may also choose against New Zealand to look at some new faces. With the amount of other cricket we have to play, we almost want to get this tapering towards the Ashes. We have got to get that right.

“Is that against New Zealand? I don’t know, that’s something for us to continue to discuss.”

Virat Kohli and boys’ preparation for the upcoming World Test Championship final against New Zealand in the UK — from June 18 — will start on May 25 when they enter the bio-bubble created for them here in India itself. The 8-day bubble will be followed by another 10-day quarantine in the UK before the boys take on the Kiwis in Southampton.

Speaking to ANI, a BCCI official in the know of the roadmap drawn for the WTC final and the five-match Test series against England said that it will be a case of breaking the quarantine period into two parts so that players can start training once in the UK on June 2.

“You can expect the boys to come into the bubble on May 25 as it will be an 8-day quarantine period which will not just involve testing against COVID-19, but also there will not be any movement as the boys prepare for the UK schedule.

“Once in UK on June 2, the boys will go for another 10-day quarantine. But this time the cricketers can train as they are moving from the bubble in India to the bubble in England in a charter plane. A bubble to bubble move lets them train even though there will be continuous testing at all times and no further movement,” the official explained.

Considering that the team ends the fifth Test against England on September 14 — final day of the fifth Test — in Manchester, it will be more than 3 months that the boys will be in the UK and the official said that will see the players being allowed to travel with their families.

“Not just the duration of the tour, the COVID-19 restrictions also mean you cannot move around the place. There will be more than a month’s gap between the Test Championship final and the opening Test against England in Trent Bridge from August 4. The players will have their families travelling with them,” the official said.

Another important area of focus is the vaccination process and the official said it will need some more time before a clear picture can be drawn.

“The Indian government has opened vaccination for every person above 18 so the players can take their first dose. But the second dose is the question here and while the BCCI is looking at working closely with the England and Wales Cricket Board to ensure players can get a second dose in the UK, if that is not approved by the UK government, we will have the vaccine taken from India for the second dose. Let’s see how that works out in the coming days,” the official explained.

The BCCI on Friday named a 20-member squad (two subject to fitness clearance) which will also have four standby players. Of the four standby players, three are fast bowlers — Prasidh Krishna, Avesh Khan, Arzan Nagwaswalla.

Asked about their role as the main squad already has six fast bowlers in Jasprit Bumrah, Ishant Sharma, Md. Shami, Md. Siraj, Shardul Thakur and Umesh Yadav, the official said the standby players would double up as net bowlers.

“See, six fast bowlers in the main squad should be good enough unless you are unfortunate and have multiple injuries. So, these three will double up as net bowlers while keeping preparations on to be ready to be drafted into the main squad if needed,” the official said.