IND vs ENG: Indian umpires Anil Chaudhary and Virender Sharma to make their Test debuts

There was a time when international cricket tours were marred with all the talks of the home umpires giving decisions in favour of the hosts. However, that changed after regular complaints. But in the post-COVID-19 pandemic world, all that became much more difficult. Now, official news has revealed that India vs EnglandTests will not have neutral umpires.

It was announced that Anil Chaudhary and Virender Sharma will make their Test debut as umpires when India and England go toe-to-toe against each other in the upcoming series. The series which is scheduled to start on February 5, India will see these two officiate along with Nitin Menon for the first two matches. The International Cricket Council announced the officials for the Test series on Thursday.

Chaudhary and Sharma have been a part of ICC’s International Panel of umpires. Nitin Menon, who is an experienced umpire will officiate in the first two matches. In the first match, he will be partnering up with Chaudhary while Sharma will be his partner in the second match. Chaudhary will be the third umpire in the second Test, a role which will be served by C Shamshuddin in the first Test.

Javagal Srinath will be the match referee for the first two Tests between India vs England

Ex-Indian cricketer and ICC match referee Javagal Srinath has been handed over the role as the only match referee in the first two matches of the series. The first match will begin on February 5, while the second one will start on February 13. Both the matches will be played at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. There is no official news regarding the officials of the third and fourth Test and will be announced later by ICC.

The last two Test matches will be played at the new Sardar Patel Stadium in Ahmedabad. Followed by the red-ball series, India and England will play in a five-match T20I series and a three-match ODI series. The T20I series will be entirely played in Ahmedabad while for the ODI series the action will shift to Pune. All the white-ball matches will also have Indian officials.

In the post-pandemic world, ICC has often cited that having home umpires are a better thing as neutral umpires present ‘logistic challenges’ to the federation and adds to the tension of the whole ‘maintaining the bio-secure bubble.’