The tour that was originally scheduled to take place in October 2020, but was postponed due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, is set to begin from February 2021. England Tour of India 2021 will start from February 5th, 2021, with the first test match taking place between the 3rd (India) and 4th (England) placed teams in Test cricket. It is going to be a pretty long tour with 4 test matches, 5 T20Is, and 3 ODIs scheduled to be played. It is not confirmed if the matches will be played behind closed doors or not, but It will be decided after assessing the situation during the time. India last hosted an International match back in March 2020. This tour will be the first one that will take place in India after the return of International cricket in the world.
England vs India 2021 live streaming will also be available in all the cricket playing nations. You can further check the details in the Live Streaming section below. Having said that, the last encounter between the two teams occurred in the ICC Men’s 50 over World Cup 2019. England won the contest easily by 31 runs, thanks to Jonny Bairstow’s 111 and Liam Plunkett’s 3-fer. Before that, India toured England in 2018, where they had a rough outing, as they only managed to win the T20I series 2-1, and lost the ODI series 2-1 and the test series 4-1. So, India will be hoping to turn the tables on their home soil this time.
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England vs India 2021 Live Streaming
The tour is going to be one of the best of 2021 and probably the most competitive, as every series of India vs England is. it will be streamed online as well as on television. Below are the details of the England Tour of India 2021 live streaming for different countries.
India: Star Sports will be the main telecaster for the series in India. You can watch live matches on Star Sports and the live stream will be available on the Hotstar app. ODIs and T20Is will be streamed on DD Sports as well.
England: Sky Sports will be bringing the live action from the ground, in England.
Australia: Fox Sports will be streaming the England vs India 2021 series live in Australia.
The West Indies: ESPN will be streaming the series live in the West Indies.
New Zealand: For New Zealand, Sky Sport will do the services of telecasting the live series.
South Africa: SuperSport will live stream the tour in South Africa.
Pakistan: Ten Sports is going to telecast the matches live in Pakistan.
Bangladesh: GTV is the official sportscaster in Bangladesh, and they will be streaming the tour live in Bangladesh.
Sri Lanka: SLRC (Channel 9) is going to telecast the England vs India 2021 tour in Sri Lanka.
England Tour of India 2021 Full Schedule
The tour was initially planned with 5 Test matches, 3 ODIs, and 3 T20Is. However, Sourav Ganguly, the current president of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), announced that the last test match of India vs England series will be replaced by two more T20Is, so the teams can prepare well for the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup 2021.
There will be only 3 venues for the tour, that will be Chennai, Ahmedabad and Pune. The Sardar Patel Stadium of Ahmedabad has been rebuilt and the players will be excited to play in the new stadium.
Here is the full schedule of the England tour of India 2021.
Apart from that, the fans can stay updated with all the live score of the England vs India 2021 matches, by just clicking on the match that is to be played, on the specific date. The schedule will show live results, just like Yahoo Cricket or ESPN cricinfo.
England vs India 2021 Schedule/Time Table Download
The England vs India series is going to be more than a month and a half long. So, it is understandable that one might forget the schedule of the series. If you are struggling to remember the timetable of the upcoming England tour, then you can download the schedule of England vs India 2021. You can save the time table to keep up-to-date with all the live matches of the tour.
Download England vs India 2021 Schedule/Time Table
First Day-Night Test in India At Biggest Stadium
The first-day night test match in India will be hosted by Ahmedabad in the newly built Sardar Patel stadium. The last International match at Motera was played way back in 2014 when Sri Lanka toured India. The second match of the tour was played there. The last domestic match was between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Rajasthan Royals in the 2015 edition of the Indian Premier League.
After being rebuilt, the Sardar Patel stands as the largest cricket stadium in the world with a huge seating capacity of 110,000 people. England will be the first team to play in the Motera stadium, and Tom Harrison, the ECB Chief Executive Officer looks excited.
“The prospect of becoming the first international side to play at the magnificent Sardar Patel Stadium in Ahmedabad adds an extra dimension to the tour.” Tom Harrison said.
Bio-Secure Bubble Restrictions
There will be only three venues for the England tour of India 2021, which are Ahmedabad, Chennai, and Pune. The BCCI has said that they have restricted the other venues for the series, keeping the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic in mind. Jay Shah, the secretary of BCCI stated:
“The BCCI prioritizes the health and safety of both teams and will leave no stone unturned to make sure that the tour is held adhering to all safety protocols agreed by the BCCI and ECB medical teams,”
After this statement, it is most likely that all the matches will be played behind closed doors. But we can hope the pandemic situation calms down before the actual tour begins. One can imagine what the scene would be, if England and India played in front of a jam-packed Sardar Patel stadium.
Tom Harrison is satisfied with BCCI’s decision to choose three venues for the tour, as he said:
“We have been delighted with the planning that has been undertaken by the BCCI to ensure the three venues in Chennai, Ahmedabad and Pune will be ready to host international cricket in a bio-secure environment and look forward to working closely with them over the coming weeks to finalize those plans.”
Last Chance For ICC World Test Championship Qualifier
The upcoming England tour of India 2021 is going to feature four test matches, and all of them will count towards the points table of the ICC World Test Championship. The Test Championship started in 2019 with the Ashes series between Australia and England. One and a half year later, India is sitting at the 2nd spot with 7 wins and 2 losses, and their points read 360 at the moment. On the other hand, England is right behind India, at 3rd place. They have 8 wins, 3 draws, and 4 losses. The points tally of England is 292 right now, and they will be looking to surpass India in the points department, in the approaching tour.
Having said that, the forthcoming England vs India 2021 series can pretty much change the whole dynamics of the ICC Test Championship points table. Both teams will be looking to win as many matches as they can, to reach the top of the points table. This will be the last chance for both India and England to make their place secured for the final of the World Test Championship, which will be played at the home of cricket, Lord’s, later in June 2021.
What To Expect From This Tour?
The contest in any format between India and England is always a treat to watch. Whether it be Test cricket, One Days, or T20Is, the competitiveness and the atmosphere in the matches between the two teams is always top-notch and the games are always close and thrilling. It will be a shame if the upcoming tour will be played behind closed doors because the Indian cricket fans are one of the most enthusiastic ones, and the stadiums are more often than not house-full, whenever a team visits India or if there is a tournament going on.
At the same time, something is better than nothing. This England tour of India will be the first one in the country after almost a year. England last visited India in 2016/17, where India won the test series by 4-nil and the ODI and T20I series by a margin of 2-1. Later in 2021, India will also host the biggest T20 event, the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, in October and November. It was scheduled to take place this year, from 18th October to 15th November, in Australia. But it has been rescheduled now for the next year after ICC analyzed the current situation and preferred the safety of the players above the tournament.
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