The schedule for India’s tour of England in 2025 was announced on Thursday, with the first Test set to take place from June 20 at Headingley in Leeds.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the schedule on X, tweeting, “Announced! A look at #TeamIndia’s fixtures for the 5-match Test series against England in 2025 #ENGvIND.”
The second Test of the five-match series will be held from July 2-6, while the third Test will take place from July 10-14 at the iconic Lord’s Stadium in London.
The fourth Test will be played at Old Trafford in Manchester from July 23-27, and the final Test will be held at The Oval in London from July 31 to August 4.
This series will be extremely crucial for India, as they have not won a series in England since 2007, when they secured a 1-0 victory over the Three Lions under the captaincy of Rahul Dravid. It will also be one of the most highly anticipated bilateral competitions of the ICC World Test Championship 2025-27 cycle.
In India’s last tour of England, four Tests were played from August to September 2021 under the captaincy of Virat Kohli, with India leading 2-1. However, the final match was rescheduled for July 2022 due to COVID-19. India played that match at Edgbaston under the captaincy of Jasprit Bumrah, losing it by seven wickets to level the series 2-2, missing what was their best chance to secure a Test series win in England’s challenging conditions.
In the most recent Test series between the two sides, held earlier this year, England suffered a 4-1 defeat to India in India. Despite skipper Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum’s ‘Bazball’ approach, they failed to breach India’s home dominance, marked by outstanding performances from skipper Rohit Sharma, opener Yashasvi Jaiswal, and spinners Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin. Several young players, including Shubman Gill, Dhruv Jurel, Sarfaraz Khan, and Akash Deep, also stood out in what was a fiercely contested series.