India to get three-week break between WTC and England series

The WTC final against New Zealand will be  held  from  June  18-22  at  the  Ageas  Bowl in Southampton and the members of  the  Indian  squad  will  disperse  for  close to three weeks (20 days) before re-grouping  on  July  14  to  prepare  for  the  five-match series against England starting in Nottingham from August 4.“As  skipper  Virat  Kohli  and  coach  Ravi Shastri had told the media at the pre-departure  press  conference,  there  will be a break.

There is a six-week gap between  WTC  final  and  opening  Test  against England, so we had to address the issue of players’ well-being. Within UK, they can disperse off, go for a holiday, meet friends and family,” a senior BCCI official said.Obviously,   there   could   be   some   team   get-togethers   also   but   players   would be free to choose how they want to spend their time.

“Most of them have come to UK multiple  times  and  have  friends  and  acquaintances  around  the  country.  It’s  only fair that they can switch off,” said the  source.  In  fact,  skipper  Kohli  on  June  2,  during  the  pre-departure,  was  asked if the 42-day gap between the two assignments  would  affect  the  team’s  preparations.  Kohli  had  termed  it  a  welcome break for the team.

“I feel like after you are done with WTC, I think it’s a great opportunity to refresh and restructure. Hopefully,  if  things  are  okay,  out  in  Eng-land,  we  would  have  finished  our  quarantine  period  and  just  for  the  guys  to  be  normal  for  a  few  periods  of time just disconnect again,” Kohli had said back then.Head coach Shastri had also echoed his skipper’s sentiments