To avoid falling ill by eating food in India, England to travel with Manchester United chef for five-match Test series

To avoid falling ill by eating food in India, England to travel with Manchester United chef for five-match Test series

England Team, Omar Meziane (Images via ESPNcricinfo, The Telegraph)

England and India are set to meet for the five-match Test series with the first Test scheduled on January 25th. The visiting team will be coming to India along with a chef who will take care of the players’ nutrition throughout the series.

A report by The Telegraph says England will be taking the chef on a tour of India to avoid falling ill. The reports said that despite the risk of offending the hosts, England want their players not to fill their stomachs with pizzas and energy bars after refusing to eat the spicy meals provided at the team’s hotel.

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England is the first cricket team to take its own chef on tours. They insist that bringing their chef on tours of other countries has nothing to do with trusting the hotels’ food items and the sole reason is ensuring players get nutritious foods, which in turn, can affect them during matches.

Notably, England went on a tour of Pakistan in 2022 along with a chef. The chef, Omar Meziane, now works for Manchester United.

Aakash Chopra Takes dig at England for bringing chef to India

Former India cricketer Aakash Chopra, it seems, did not like England touring India with a chef and took a brutal dig at the team. On X, he asked whether the English players would be bringing their chefs to India when they come to the subcontinent for the Indian Premier League (IPL).

England chef Test India
England Test team (Image via ESPNcricinfo)
Good Idea. I'm sure that the majority of English players should be bringing in their chefs for the IPL too….year after year. AS IF
Chopra wrote on X

Former India cricketer Virender Sehwag also had something to say on this matter. He said they needed a chef only after the retirement of Alastair Cook, but they wouldn’t need a chef during the IPL.

England won a Test series in India back in 2012. The series will be interesting without any doubt as Test cricket lovers are waiting to see how England will play their Bazball on vicious turning Indian pitches against the spin duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja.

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