[19] However, after the 2020 ICC Men's T20 World Cup was postponed by one year due to the COVID-19 pandemic,[20] the 2020 Indian Premier League (IPL) was rescheduled to be played in its place.

[21] In February 2020, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced that they would like to play a day/night Test match at the refurbished Narendra Modi Stadium.

[23] On 20 August 2020, Sourav Ganguly, president of the BCCI, said that India would host England to fulfil their Future Tours Programme (FTP) commitments.

[30] Initially, the BCCI and the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA) took the decision not to allow fans into the stadium for the first two Test matches.

[41] However, after a rise in COVID-19 cases in Ahmedabad, the BCCI and the Gujarat Cricket Association agreed to play the remaining T20I and ODI matches behind closed doors.

[49] They also named K. S. Bharat, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shahbaz Nadeem, Rahul Chahar and Priyank Panchal as standby players, and Ankit Rajpoot, Avesh Khan, Sandeep Warrier, Krishnappa Gowtham and Saurabh Kumar as net bowlers.

[50] Two days later, the ECB announced England's squad for the first two Test matches, with James Bracey, Mason Crane, Saqib Mahmood, Matt Parkinson, Ollie Robinson and Amar Virdi named as reserve players.

[53] Ahead of the first Test, both Shahbaz Nadeem and Rahul Chahar were added to India's squad, after Axar Patel was ruled out of the match with a knee injury.

[59] On 17 February 2021, the BCCI announced the squad for the last two Test matches, with Umesh Yadav joining the team and replacing Shardul Thakur.

[60] The BCCI also retained the same five net bowlers, K. S. Bharat and Rahul Chahar as standby players,[61] and released Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shahbaz Nadeem and Priyank Panchal for the Vijay Hazare Trophy.

[69] On 19 March 2021, India named their ODI squad, with Prasidh Krishna, Krunal Pandya and Suryakumar Yadav earning their maiden call-ups.