India’s warm-up fixture shrinks in UK heatwave

LONDON: India’s lone warm-up match ahead of their Test series against England Test series has been shortened by a day due to the ongoing heatwave in Britain, Essex chief executive Derek Bowden has said.

India will begin their match against Essex at Chelmsford later on Wednesday with temperatures expected to soar to a draining 30 Celsius, leading officials to truncate the fixture, which will now end on Friday instead of Saturday.

Bowden dismissed the speculation that the quality of Essex’s pitch led the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to curtail the match.

“The outfield is not unsafe and the decision has nothing to do with that. The reason the game has been cut to three days is because of the heat and the very busy schedule for the Test series,” Bowden is quoted as saying by the Telegraph.

“We had a meeting with the ECB, the BCCI this morning and agreed to cut short the match.”

India will travel to Edgbaston on Saturday to prepare for the first of their five-match series against England, which begins on August 1.

The Test series is well poised for a showdown with the hosts winning the One-Day International series after the visitors had clinched the Twenty20 tournament.