New Delhi,
The Committee of Administrators (CoA) chief Vinod Rai has said Test specialists like Murali Vijay and vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane will land in England in June as part of an India A team that will play a number of first-class games against county teams and England A.

The five-Test series against England will start in August and skipper Virat Kohli considers it as his biggest test as batsman and captain. Kohli is likely to play for Surrey in June after the IPL, as BCCI has given him permission to play county cricket. Cheteshwar Pujara (Yorkshire), Ravichandran Ashwin (Warwickshire) and Ishant Sharma (Sussex) will be playing in England from the start of the county season.

India are scheduled to play Afghanistan in a historic one-off Test in Bengaluru from June 14. Rai maintained that the BCCI is not at taking Afghanistan, who will make their Test debut at Bengaluru, lightly. He said a very competitive team will be fielded against the Afghans.

Rai informed that Indian cricketers will leave for England in two batches in June. “There will be a few seniors among the Test specialists who will leave for UK in early June along with the India A team. I can’t say how many anything between two to four senior players will be there from the start of the A tour. A few will play the Afghanistan Test and then leave for England. But yes, at least seven to eight players, who are all Test team specialists will have to be in England in June,” Rai said.