England to get just one net session ahead of the first Test against India at Rajkot

The Bangladesh vs England second and last Test ended in favor of the hosts on the third day which meant the series concluded two days ahead of schedule. England lost the match by 108 runs and with that the series was squared 1-1 as 19 years old Bangladeshi off-spinner Mehedi Hasan bamboozled them claiming a 12-wicket match haul.

It was then expected that the English team could well fly to Mumbai in advance and start practicing for the tough series ahead. But given the fact that the hotel they are booked at in the city is full with the festive season underway the 32-member contingent (16 players, 16 management staff) can only be occupied from November 2.

Citing the same reason a BCCI member was quoted by Mumbai Mirror saying, “At this stage, it is not possible to organise hotel bookings,” he said. “We can understand they may want to leave Dhaka.”

The team will not play a practice game ahead of the start of the series against India and thus it was expected that they would be eager upon a few additional training sessions but a team spokesman, reportedly said that they will not have any net sessions in Dhaka in the next couple of days either.

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As per the schedule, England have just one net session in Mumbai at the Cricket Club of India (CCI) in Mumbai on November 5 following which they will leave for Rajkot on the next day. The first Test of the five-match series starts on November 9 at Rajkot.

The second Test will be played at Visakhapatnam from November 17-21, third at Mohali from November 26-30, fourth Test at Mumbai from December 8-12 and the last game of the series will be hosted by the Chepauk Stadium in Chennai and will be played from November 16-20.

Alastair Cook & Co. will then fly back home for Christmas and New Year and will return for the three-match ODI series that will be played at Pune – January 15, Cuttack- January 19 and Kolkata- January 22 and the three Twenty20 Internationals at Kanpur- January 26, Nagpur- January 29 and Bangalore- February 1.

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