No extra warm-up game

The squad for Ireland and the subsequent tour of England, to be selected at Bangalore on June 12, is set to depart on June 19 and return in the second week of September at the conclusion of the Natwest one-day series in England. Some players, selected for the best-of-seven one-day meet in England, would directly proceed to South Africa for the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup.

Australia will be in India to play seven one-day internationals in October, apart from a Twenty20 fixture against the hosts. After this, Pakistan will tour India for three Tests and five one-dayers, which would leave the team with hardly any breathing space before they depart for the tour of Australia for playing four Tests and a one tri-series.

As per the schedule, the Indians are slated to play only one warm-up game before taking on the Australians in the first Test at Melbourne from December 26.

Indian captain Rahul Dravid had earlier complained about the “over-crammed” calendar of the team, but the BCCI rejected his contention, saying that there was a rotation policy in place to prevent player burn-out.