England Lions set to play Duleep Trophy

England Lions, or England A are all set to be the foreign team in this season's Duleep Trophy. England A, incidentally, were the first foreign team to play the Duleep Trophy when the concept first came into existence in the 2003-04 season.

Niranjan Shah, the BCCI Honorary Secretary, confirmed that talks were on and that the ECB had "more or less agreed" to send the team for the Duleep Trophy. The ECB, in fact, looks at it as an opportunity for its fringe players to get exposure in the sub-continent conditions, the London-based Daily Telegraph reported. The official confirmation is likely to come by Thursday.

In 2003-04, Kevin Pietersen, Matt Prior and Sajid Mahmood toured with the England A team, who lost both their matches outright to East Zone and South Zone.