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Monday 21 July 2025 12:30
Manchester United were honoured to receive a visit from the India cricket team, ahead of their fourth Test against England, in association with mutual kit supplier, adidas.
The Test series rolls into Manchester this week, with five days of cricketing action scheduled to be held just down the road from the Theatre of Dreams, at Emirates Old Trafford.
Ahead of the much-anticipated event, the India squad were invited for a tour of the Reds’ training base, where they met Ruben Amorim’s squad, swapped shirts, and even tried their hand at each other’s sport.
Here, we take you inside Carrington as United welcomed India’s top sporting stars to town, as adidas’ partnership with United and the BBCI brought the teams together…
It wouldn’t be a true Mancunian welcome without a spot of rain and, right on cue, the heavens opened as India’s all-black coach pulled into Carrington’s car park.
The cricketers disembarked one by one, led by coach Gautam Gambhir, who was the first greeted by director of football Jason Wilcox and United legend Wes Brown, the former keen to apologise for the regrettable weather served up.
From there, the visitors headed straight into one of our indoor training facilities, walking past the gym to find a rack of our new 2025/26 home and away kits, complete with their name and number printed on the back.
Wes was on hand to settle our guests in, as they tried on their new shirts, and, soon after, captain Shubman Gill and Arshdeep Singh broke into a circle with fellow team-mates for a quick game of no-bounce as they awaited the Reds’ arrival.
First on the scene were Tom Heaton, Rasmus Hojlund and Harry Maguire, shaking hands and exchanging words before collecting their own specially printed India jerseys, the trio quickly followed by the rest of the United team, led in by Mason Mount and joined, not long after, by Amorim.
Heaton wasted no time donning his new shirt, before Kobbie Mainoo, Leny Yoro and the rest of the United squad followed suit for a large group picture.
No sooner had the camera finished before Jack Fletcher raced over to the wickets to collect a bat, and soon had a stream of bowlers lined up to challenge him. He faced efforts from Maguire, Singh and Luke Shaw, before handing the honours to Manuel Ugarte and Heaton.
It was then Maguire’s turn to bat, but Shardul Thakur had other ideas when he fired a football towards the centre-back instead. It was back to the day job for Harry, who defended his wicket like it was United’s six-yard box on a Saturday afternoon, thundering the ball back with his head in characteristic style.
Photo opportunities followed, including Heaton and wicket-keeper Rishabh Pant swapping gloves, which the latter had to enlist the help of Bruno Fernandes to remove, once all the shots had been gathered.
Heaton then dashed over to a small-sized net to field strikes from Pant, Thakur and Mohammed Siraj – tipped as one of the squad’s best footballers in an earlier conversation with Jasprit Bumrah – but it was undoubtedly Pant who stole the show, rocketing a left-footed shot that flew into the top-right corner past Heaton.
“Nice strike, that,” the impressed United keeper admitted.
In the midst of pre-season training, having only just returned from a game against Leeds United in Sweden the day before, the Reds waved goodbye as they made their way over for a Sunday morning gym session.
United v Leeds in Sweden
Gallery
View the best images from the Strawberry Arena, as we debuted our away kit.
The India squad were then led outside for a tour of the Carrington pitches, where they bumped into Andre Onana, who greeted the entire team before heading back inside.
There was time to catch a glimpse of some goalkeeper training on a separate pitch, before the Men in Blue gathered round for one final group picture to commemorate their visit.
It was a meeting to remember for both sets of players, as we warm up to this week’s action at Emirates Old Trafford.
Thanks for visiting, Team India!
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Reds bowled over by India’s visit
Gallery
See 30 images as India’s stars visited our training base to meet Ruben and his squad.
Monday 21 July 2025 12:30
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