Tirumala (Andhra Pradesh) [India], May 25 : Ahead of the five-match Test series against England, India's fielding coach T Dilip visited the revered Tirumala Tirupati temple on Sunday and offered prayers.
The temple, dedicated to Lord Venkateswara and considered an incarnation of Lord Vishnu, is one of the most visited religious sites in India, attracting millions of devotees annually.
The visit of T Dilip comes ahead of the England tour for a five-match Test series, part of the 2025-2027 ICC World Test Championship.
The series will take place from June to August 2025, with matches at Headingley (Leeds), Edgbaston (Birmingham), Lord's (London), Old Trafford (Manchester), and The Oval (London).
This will be India's first bilateral series since both Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli announced their retirement from Test cricket earlier this month.
Earlier on Saturday, right-hand batter Shubman Gill was appointed as the new Test captain for India, while wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant will serve as his deputy in the longest format, as the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the squad for the highly anticipated five-match Test series.
India has added Abhimanyu Easwaran to the Test squad. He has been a domestic cricket stalwart for Bengal, with 101 first-class games, 7,674 runs at an average of 48.87, 27 centuries, and 29 fifties behind him. He had a disappointing tour to Australia last year, where he scored just 36 runs in four innings.
Following Kohli's retirement from the longest format of the game, a couple of budding and solidified figures like Sai Sudarshan and Karun Nair have been added to the middle-order.
In the bowling department, right-arm seamer Jasprit Bumrah will be leading the unit on English soil. Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh and Shardul Thakur are the other fast bowlers in the squad.
The series will take place from June to August 2025, with matches at Headingley (Leeds), Edgbaston (Birmingham), Lord's (London), Old Trafford (Manchester), and The Oval (London).
This will be India's first bilateral series since both Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli announced their retirement from Test cricket earlier this month.
India's Test squad for England series: Shubman Gill (c), Rishabh Pant (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav.