In cricket, playing white ball format before plunging into the five-Test rubber against hosts. England gives the Indian cricketers sufficient time to get used to the conditions in Old Blighty, said head coach Ravi Shastri. Team India, who is schedule for tour England in the month of late June, for a full tour comprising T20s, ODIs and then Tests.

“Michael Clarke and I had a chat earlier that Indian team will be in England almost a month before the first Test match. We play some one-day cricket before the first Test match starts. You kick off the one-day games around 1st of July and the first Test starts August 1. That gives us that much more time,” Shastri said at a book release function today.

India are to start with a T20I in England on July 3. Shastri, India team member Rohit Sharma, cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar and Clarke were present at the release of the book “Eleven Gods and a Billion Indians: The On and Off the Field Story of Cricket in India and Beyond”, by Boria Majumdar.

India head coach, Ravi Shastri was happy that problems regarding lack of time for acclimatisation for an overseas Test rubber, as was the case before the Indian team’s tour of South Africa, have now been addressed by the Indian Cricket Board and CoA. Shastri said he was proud of what the team did in South Africa and for also raising the bar by winning the ODI series after a quarter century of attempts.