Indian squads for Afghanistan and Ireland series to be announced on May 8

After the culmination of the IPL 2018, the Indian players will start their preparation for the historic one-off Test against Afghanistan which will be followed by a tour to Ireland. The Men in Blue will play a solitary Test match against Afghanistan in Bangalore and visit Ireland for two T20Is slated to start from June 27 in Dublin.

The squads for the same are set to be announced by national selection committee this month on May 8. The decision to announce the squad in advance is to ascertain who will be available for the Afghanistan Test with likes of Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ishant Sharma set to miss the historic Test against Afghanistan due to their county commitments.

Also, procuring UK visa is another issue for a few players, which has prompted the board to ask the selectors to quickly announce the squad. COA Vinod Rai has already said that in order to ensure a good performance in England, at least six to seven Test specialists will be in England in June with India A side to acclimatize with the conditions

A senior BCCI official privy to the developments revealed according to New Indian Express, “There will be three squads that will be selected on May 8. The Afghanistan Test is from June 14-18, followed by UK tour that starts with two-match T20I series against Ireland in Dublin. The selectors will also name India A squad that will tour England in June.”

India’s upcoming fixtures

With the World Cup slated to take place in 2019 in England and Wales, India will be traveling to the UK for a series across all the formats later in the year followed by a tour to Down Under. The Indian team will tour England from July to September 2018. The tour will consist of three ODIs and T20is each and five Test matches. They will also face Essex in one first-class game

The complete schedule for India’s tour of Australia for late 2018 – early 2019 has also been announced by Cricket Australia. The tour, featuring 3 T20Is, 4 Tests, and 3 ODIs, will commence on November 21 with the first T20I at Brisbane.

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