By playing two four-day fixtures against an India A side in July, India will warm-up for their five-Test series in England this summer. On Wednesday, Northamptonshire and Leicestershire were confirmed as hosts of the fixtures, with the first game due to start at Wantage Road on July 21 and the second at Grace Road from July 28 onwards. The first test begins at Trent Bridge on August 4.

As part of their tour to England, India A also has fixtures against Derbyshire and Essex penciled in, as well as a four-day warm-up match at Grace Road from July 12 against a ‘First-Class Counties Select XI’ with unconfirmed details of those fixtures. It is understood that it would be possible to pick an England Lions team to play in that game, although that would involve pulling players out of their County Championship obligations.

The decision of India to play internal warm-up fixtures, rather than county opposition, comes after Australia chose to do the same in its preparation for the 2019 Ashes, following a gradual decline over many years in the status of tour matches. While these fixtures were once a highlight of tours to England, counties have tended to field weakened sides in recent times to keep players fit for competitive matches, resulting in touring teams becoming more skeptical about whether they provide helpful preparation.

They had been due to play a four-day warm-up match against Essex at Chelmsford on India’s most recent tour to England in 2018, possibly with the first-class status, but instead chose to cut the fixture to three days and play it as a practice match to spend an extra day training at Edgbaston ahead of the first test.

Everyone has chosen to schedule warm-up fixtures against the counties for the other sides touring England next summer. New Zealand will play a four-day game against Somerset at Taunton starting on May 25, while on June 18 and 20, Sri Lanka will play 50-over and T20 warm-ups against Kent and Sussex, respectively, and Pakistan is due to play Northamptonshire on a provisional basis.