London, Jun 24 (IANS): Surrey will be hosting Middlesex in a friendly match on July 26 and 27, the County Cricket Club announced on Wednesday. The two-day match will be played at The Oval behind closed doors and will be streamed on Surrey's Facebook page and the official website of the stadium.

"I'm really excited to hopefully see cricket return to the Kia Oval at the end of July and then for the rest of the season," said Surrey Director of Cricket and former England captain Alec Stewart.

The Times had earlier reported that a number of county leagues have written to their clubs informing them that they should make plans for adult and junior matches to restart from the middle of July, although there are likely to be some restrictions in place.

While there seems to be no likelihood of recreational cricket resuming in the United Kingdom in the near future, the County Circuit and England's international matches are set to restart next month.

England are slated to host the West Indies in a three-match Test series next month. The series will be held in bio-secure environments following which they are also slated to host Pakistan.

The latter however is under a shadow of doubt with the emergence of coronavirus cases within the Pakistan squad.

Ashley Giles, England's managing director of men's cricket, has said the team's return to group training at The Ageas Bowl will be serious business with stringent social distancing norms in place and that it won't be a holiday for all of them.

England take on the West Indies in a three match Test series starting next month. A 30-man party has assembled at the Southampton venue, where they will live on-site and prepare. Giles also said players will be allowed to leave and re-enter the team "bubble" during the series.