Seven Indian players set to play county ahead of the ICC World Test Championship

What's the story?

According to the reports, seven Test players of India are set to play English County cricket

In case you didn't know...

The first ever World Test Championship is scheduled to begin from 'The Ashes' this year. The first series for India under the World Test Championship will be against the West Indies. BCCI wants some of the Test players to take part in the English County Championship, keeping the World Test Championship in view.

The heart of the matter

Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Prithvi Shaw, Hanuma Vihari, Mayank Agarwal, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ishant Sharma are seven Test specialists who will play the English County Championship for different County sides.

Pujara, who has already played County Cricket for Yorkshire, will play for Yorkshire this year too. He had signed a three-year contract to play for Yorkshire in 2018.

“Pujara’s contract was a deal between him and the county and it’s a long term deal,” a senior BCCI official told PTI on Friday.

Rahane is almost confirmed to play for Hampshire as per the reports. He has requested BCCI to grant him permission to play for Hampshire, and is waiting for the confirmation of the Committee of Administrators (CoA).

The BCCI official said, “CoA head Vinod Rai has already given his approval, but Diana Edulji and Lt General Ravi Thodage are yet to give their approvals"

He further told, “With India set to play against the Caribbean in about fortnight after the end of the World Cup, the BCCI has prepared a proposal wherein their Test specialists can play some red ball cricket in months of June till mid July,”

BCCI wants Indian players to play for top County sides, which include Essex, Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire.

The official told PTI,

“During the last Test series in England, the BCCI has had discussions with the CEOs of all major counties so that our top Test players can play there in summers.”

BCCI is trying to manage 3-4 games for each player before the World Test Championship.

The official told at last,

“The conditions are completely different save that they will playing with red Dukes which will also be used in the West Indies. It’s just that they will get game time. We are hopeful that all our seven Test players will be playing either Division 1 or 2 of the English county.”

What's next?

It seems that the BCCI is very serious regarding the World Test Championship. They want the Indian players to practice in the best way possible before the series against the West Indies.