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The England and Wales cricket Board have claimed that the upcoming five-match Test series against India is on levelled with the Ashes in terms of commercial importance.

Richard Gould, the chief executive of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) believes that the upcoming five-match Test series between India and England is on par with the Ashes in terms of commercial importance. Richard is banking on the series to capture the imagination of English fans after they had an underwhelming international summer in 2024.

Last year, England’s fans were hooked on to the Paris Olympics and the Euro- which is the biggest international football tournament in Europe. Empty seats at Lord’s after England’s series win over Sri Lanka also did not make a good image as far as cricket was concerned.

However, this time Richard Gould is positive about the summer being a great one- which will be all thanks to such a massive fan-following of the Indian team.

“We know how big it is. It is a huge summer,” Gould was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.

“Last summer, there were all sorts of things happening all over the place, weren’t there? I think that is one of the great things about a five-Test series: it is a proper long-read; it’s something that people can get really into. There will be subplots, and sub-subplots. There will be all sorts of issues over that six-week period,” Gould added.

Great names such as Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and R Ashwin might have retired from red-ball cricket within the last six months, but India’s dominance in the game makes any series against them to be compared to the Ashes.

“Certainly, in terms of commercial importance,” Gould said.

The upcoming five-match series is going to mark the Indian team transitioning to a new era, as veteran players retired from Test cricket and young players being named in the squad. Shubman Gill is appointed the new red-ball captain, along with Rishabh Pant being named his deputy.

The five-match series is going to be held across five different venues, which are as follows:
1) First Test: June 20-24, Headingley (Leeds)
2) Second Test: July 2-6, Edgbaston (Birmingham)
3) Third Test: July 10-14, Lord’s (London)4)
4) Fourth Test, July 23-27, Old Trafford (Manchester)
5)Fifth Test: July 31- August 4, The Oval (London)

Indian squad for England tour:
Shubman Gill (C), Rishabh Pant (VC/Wk), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Kl Rahul, Sai Sudarshan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nightish Kumar Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jadeington, Dhruv Jadeington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav.