Ashwin set to play for Surrey in County Championship ahead of England Tests

India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin could play a game in the County Championship for Surrey ahead of the Test series against England, which is scheduled to begin on August 4, according to a report on ESPNCricinfo. The game is scheduled to end on July 14, which is the day the entire India team will regroup after their holidays.

If given the work visa, Ashwin, who has represented Nottinghamshire and Worcestershire in the past will play against Somerset at The Oval. For now, no tour games have been finalised for India ahead of the five-match Test series against England, which will kick start the new cycle of the World Test Championship (WTC). Speaking of the WTC, India captain Virat Kohli was unhappy with the fact that his team had not been assigned any warm-up games ahead of the final in Southampton.

"Well, that doesn't depend on us," Kohli said when asked if he would have preferred to play first-class matches instead of an intra-squad match. 

"We obviously wanted first-class games, which I believe have not been given to us. I don't know what the reasons for that are. But yeah, other than that, I think our preparation time will be ample for us to be ready for the first Test."

Despite India making a request to the ECB asking them to schedule warm-up matches ahead of the Tests, there has been no formal approval from the board yet.