India begin their long tour of United Kingdom with a two-match T20I series against Ireland. Following the Ireland series, India will face England in three T20Is and as man One-Day Internationals (ODIs). After the limited-overs fixtures, India and England will lock horns in a five-match Test series, which starts from August 01 onwards at Edgbaston. Meanwhile, India’s focus will be on the two-match T20I series against Ireland. The two T20Is will take place on June 27 and 29.

Ahead of the series, Indian players were seen training hard in the gym. The pictures and video of Team India’s workout were shared by the official BCCI Twitter handle. As evident, each member of the team was assigned a particular workout and each one of them was doing it with intensity. Fitness has become one of the benchmarks for Indian cricket team and the players have been working a lot on their fitness. Virat Kohli, in this department, leads from the front as well. India vs Ireland 2018: Five Facts You Need to Know Ahead of the IND vs IRE T20I Series.

Here’s the video shared by BCCI:

Here’re the pictures shared by BCCI:

For Ireland series, India named a strong squad. Virat Kohli, who missed the Afghanistan Test, will lead the side. Apart from Kohli, the squad features heavyweights like Lokesh Rahul, Suresh Raina, and Manish Pandey in the middle order. Interestingly, Dinesh Karthik was also named in the squad apart from regular wicketkeeper MS Dhoni.

In the bowling department, India included spinner Washington Sundar apart from Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav as well. Mohammad Shami was left out while Siddarth Kaul and Umesh Yadav found a place in the team apart from Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah.

Ireland, on the other hand, named Indian origin cricketer Simi Singh in the squad. Singh, who originally hails from Mohali, is an off-spinner and made his T20I debut against the Netherlands.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 24, 2018 09:23 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).