"I liked Michael Vaughan's suggestion a lot" - Aakash Chopra on fringe Indian players playing in The Hundred

Aakash Chopra has concurred with Michael Vaughan's suggestion that fringe Indian players can play in The Hundred to enable the Test series against England to be brought forward.

Simple solution .. Play the First Indian Test a week earlier .. No England Test players would then potentially play the 100 so Fringe Indian Test players replace them .. Then the IPL can finish .. Good deal all round .. #ENGvIND

— Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) May 20, 2021

There are reports that the BCCI has requested the ECB to prepone the India-England Test series by a week or so to create a window for the remainder of IPL 2021 to be staged.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel, Aakash Chopra agreed with Vaughan's suggestion of allowing backup Indian players to play in The Hundred, which would compensate for the England Test regulars' absence during the initial stages of the tournament.

"I liked Michael Vaughan's suggestion a lot. If you are taking care of my interests, it is my duty to take care of your interests. So, if you start the Test series a week earlier, we will release our fringe players for The Hundred," said Chopra.

The cricketer-turned-commentator feels the BCCI can forego their policy of not allowing Indian players to feature in overseas leagues for this one instance.

"They can have 4-5 Indian players for The Hundred. To date, no current Indian player has been allowed in any of the world's T20 leagues. But we make an exception for this one tournament," added Aakash Chopra.

Indian T20I regulars like KL Rahul, Washington Sundar and Shardul Thakur could feature in The Hundred in such a scenario, if they do not get a spot in the Test XI.

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"No one will be able to do anything on their own" - Aakash Chopra

Aakash Chopra feels all the cricket boards will have to cooperate with each other

Aakash Chopra pointed out that cricket boards can only sustain if they work in unison in the current scenario.

"In the post-pandemic world, there is a realization that no one will be able to do anything on their own. Everyone will need the others' help sometime or the other. Everybody will have to look after each other. If you take the example of India's tour to Sri Lanka, more matches were added on the tour to help the Sri Lankan board else all these boards will become bankrupt," said Chopra.

The 43-year-old concluded by opining that the ECB is likely to accede to BCCI's request and that the remainder of IPL 2021 will be staged in September.

"So if BCCI is going to suffer a loss of 2500 crores, if they ask ECB to adjust, I think ECB will agree. I feel the IPL will happen in September, we will get a three-week window, where it will happen I don't know yet," signed off Aakash Chopra.

Apart from the preponement of the India-England Test series, there is a possibility that it could be reduced to a four-match series to create a window for the IPL. There are certain reports that the BCCI is already in talks with the host counties if they are willing to forego a Test match for additional limited-overs matches on a subsequent tour.

With most other countries, even reducing a test wouldn't be a huge factor but England sells out test matches; it is the spiritual home of test cricket & tickets are bought well in advance. But I am fairly certain there will be a win-win proposition for @ECB_cricket & @bcci there

— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) May 20, 2021