England's Test captain Andrew Strauss will prepare for January's Test series against Pakistan in United Arab Emirates (UAE) by joining the touring England Performance Programme (EPP) in India next month.
Strauss has been out of action since guiding England to the No.1 spot in Test cricket with a 4-0 whitewash against India in August.
The London Evening Standard reported that Strauss, 34, will be joined at camps in Mumbai and Pune by Eoin Morgan, who is returning from a shoulder injury, and Matt Prior. Fast bowlers Jimmy Anderson, Stuart Broad, Chris Tremlett and Graham Onions will also join the EPP in separate camps to be conducted in Potchefstroom in South Africa.
Anderson was called up after he was rested for last month's limited overs series against India while Broad, Tremlett and Onions are all returning from injury.
"The England Performance Programme camps will offer the England players the perfect chance to step up their training and preparations ahead of the forthcoming Test series against Pakistan in January," England performance director David Parsons was quoted as saying by the daily.
"The players attending these camps didn't participate in England's recent ODI tour of India or have been sidelined through injury so this is the ideal opportunity to build up their preparations during an important period leading into January and provides the talented young players on both the EPP and EDP programmes a chance to train alongside and learn from some of the very best," he said.
Wicketkeeper-batsman Jonny Bairstow, who played in India in all five ODIs and the lone Twenty20, will head to Pune as part of the EPP.
"It was a great experience. It was the first time I had ever been to the sub-continent so to go out there and experience the crowd, the culture, the heat was a fantastic thing to do. To be thrust in at the deep end and then to go back now with all those experiences behind me is a fantastic thing to have had and I will hopefully take those with me over the next few weeks," Bairstow was quoted as saying by Sky Sports News.
