Pujara, Bumrah, Pant to play for Leicestershire against India; here’s why

Four Indian players who are part of the Test squad in England will play for Leicestershire County Cricket Club against the Rohit Sharma-led India in a four-day tour match starting today (June 23) at Uptonsteel County Ground.

Middle-order batsman Cheteshwar Pujara, wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant, fast bowlers Jasprit Bumrah and Prasidh Krishna will all team up with the Leicestershire squad, captained by opening batsman Sam Evans, Leicestershire county announced in a statement.

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“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 match will be played with 13 players per side to provide further flexibility and help manage bowling workloads,” it added.

India arrived in Leicestershire on Sunday, before they undertook their first training and net session at Uptonsteel County Ground on Monday morning.

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The world’s second-best Test ranked side has trained for three days ahead of the four-day fixture against the Running Foxes, which precedes the rescheduled fifth Test against England at Edgbaston from July 1.

India currently leads the series 2-1.

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Squads

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

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