When the iconic Eden Gardens is sold out on Wednesday evening, there will be no sense that the first of at least 13 fixtures across three formats against England in 2025 arrives at a time of unusual flux and infighting in Indian cricket, a world of unprecedented opulence that grows in power by the week.

Every Indian run will be cheered to the rafters, drowning out a tense atmosphere behind the scenes that has grown across a poor run of results. Each of their three series against England this year – T20s now, pre-Champions Trophy ODIs next month, then a Test tour in the summer – is more important than the last, and India will be desperate to turn things around. If they do not, defeat at home in this year’s Tests would represent an awful result for England.

India’s recent Test series in Australia was a memorable contest, but the touring team fell away badly after an unforgettable win in the opener. Since Perth, next to nothing has gone right for India – except where the brilliant Jasprit Bumrah landed the ball. Because of Bumrah, India competed, but the experience broke him. Without rain in Brisbane, it could easily have been 4-1. By the end of the tour, which came on the back of a 3-0 home defeat by New Zealand, one of the most extraordinary results in Test history, the set-up was visibly fraying.

Ravichandran Ashwin retired, and it would be a surprise if more big names do not follow in the next year. Skipper Rohit Sharma, who had missed the Perth win on paternity leave, dropped himself after 31 runs in six innings. Virat Kohli was bullied outside off stump, and picked a fight with the teenager Sam Konstas and the Sydney crowd. India blew away a golden opportunity to draw in Melbourne, with Rishabh Pant’s extraordinary shot sparking a collapse and a dressing room dressing-down from the infamously spiky coach Gautam Gambhir, who has long been a divisive character, and the exact opposite of the mellow man he replaced, Rahul Dravid. There were reports in the travelling media of infighting and cliques.

Since they have returned from Australia, the issues have only deepened. Last week the all-powerful Board of Control for Cricket in India sent a 10-point “Policy Document for Team India” to contracted players, cracking the whip to “promote discipline, unity and a positive team environment”. Disobey their orders, and the BCCI would take disciplinary action, including fines and exclusion from domestic cricket and the Indian Premier League. The policy was cooked up at an emergency review meeting between Gambhir, Rohit, selector Ajit Agarkar and BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia.

The headline rule was a curb on the number of days players’ families could spend with them on tour. On a long tour like that of England this summer, they will be limited to two weeks, a policy likely to be unpopular with players who enjoy their time in the UK, where they can roam the streets with their loved ones and not exist in the gilded cage their celebrity forces them into while in India. Many former players have had their say on the issue, and England captain Jos Buttler smiled when he was asked about it on Tuesday.

“That’s a loaded question, isn’t it?” Buttler said. “I think it’s important [to have time with family]. We live in a very modern world. I think it’s great to be able to have families on the tour with you and try to enjoy that. There’s a lot of cricket and people spend a long time away from home, I think post-Covid all that’s been highlighted as well. I don’t think it affects the cricket too much, I think it’s something that is very manageable. Personally, I think it’s really important to try and be able to share that with your family and lighten the load on being away from home.”

The BCCI mandated that players could not travel separately to and from a tour, training sessions or matches, and would not be able to bring personal staff – such as chefs – on tour, or engage in personal commercial interests while on international duty.

Players are also now required to play more domestic cricket. So this week Rohit is playing for Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy for the first time since 2016, while next week Kohli turns out for Delhi for the first time since 2012. He will do so alongside Pant and Ravindra Jadeja. They will all be back for the Champions Trophy, where the team will be led again by Rohit, whose fine captaincy soured rapidly last year, and like Kohli appears to be a big enough figure to retire on his own terms. By the tour of Australia, Bumrah – who is recovering from injury – looked the team’s spiritual and tactical figurehead.

The India side for this series ostensibly has a second-string feel, even when captained by Suryakumar Yadav, and containing Axar Patel, Hardik Pandya and the fit-again Mohammed Shami to provide experience in a dynamic team full of young IPL stars. A similar squad beat an almost full-strength South Africa – finalists at the T20 World Cup – away late last year.

“There’s so much depth in Indian cricket,” said Buttler, an IPL veteran. “The squad they have here has been together for the last few T20 series they’ve had. They have performed fantastically well. They are even more aggressive than they’ve ever been, ultra positive and really trying to break new ground. We look forward to that challenge and will be playing in a very similar manner.”

This is the group that will be charged with stopping the rot that is threatening to set in. As ageing greats exit, we could see much more of them.