Joe Root insists reports that England’s tour of India could be put in jeopardy because the Board of Control for Cricket in India is unable to pay their tour expenses will not be a distraction.

Reports in India have claimed that the BCCI has written to the England and Wales Cricket Board to ask it to pay England’s expenses for the five-match Test series.

But Root said on Sky Sports News: “That must have come out this morning and my biggest challenge in the morning is making sure I make the team bus. I’ve not heard anything about that, for whomever it concerns it’s very important that they worry about it and we just get on with the cricket.

“India pose a big threat, we’ve just got to make sure we prepare very well and try and prove a lot of people wrong that we can perform extremely well on this tour.”

The report in the India Express claimed that the BCCI secretary, Ajay Shirke, had written to the ECB’s operations manager, Phil Neale, to say that, since there was no agreement on a memorandum of understanding between the sides, England would have to pay their own travel, accommodation and tour expenses. The MoU cannot be issued because of a disagreement between the Lodha Committee, which is looking into reform in cricket, and the BCCI. The letter to the ECB from the BCCI, by far the richest cricket governing body in the world, apologised for this inconvenience.

“Dear Phil, I warmly welcome you for the upcoming cricket series. I am however at great pains to inform you that the BCCI is at present not in a position to execute the MoU between the Indian Cricket Board and the ECB,” Shirke wrote, according to the Indian Express. “This is due to restrictions on execution of contracts imposed on the BCCI by a Court order.

“Certain courtesies such as hotel, travel and various other arrangements have been extended to you on arrival of the team in India. However, till the MoU is executed, the BCCI is not in a position to commit to paying for the same. Please make arrangements to remit such payments. The BCCI will inform you as and when further instructions are received by the BCCI from the Lodha Committee. I apologise on behalf of the BCCI for inconvenience that is being caused.”

England arrived en masse for their first practice session in India, without the obvious security presence which surrounded them for the past month in Bangladesh.

All 16 members of the Test squad were involved at the BCCI ground in Mumbai, adjacent to the Wankhede Stadium which will host the fourth match of five against India.

The net session was notable too for a batting order of a possible top five for next week’s first Test in Rajkot which did not include the out-of-form Gary Ballance.

The left-hander watched on and waited his turn while both Ben Duckett, Alastair Cook’s latest opening partner, and the uncapped Haseeb Hameed joined the established top order at the start of this net session.

The four-strong spin contingent were also in action, but England’s pace attack stuck to fitness drills on the sidelines.

England will be hoping for a response from the batting collapse which led to them losing the second Test against Bangladesh and drawing the series.

England slumped from 100 for none to 164 all out to lose a Test to Bangladesh for the first time. On the task of bouncing back, Root said: “It’s making sure you try and learn some of the lessons of that mad hour-and-a-half but at the same time understand that it’s a completely new challenge, new surfaces and we played some really good cricket over there as well as that.”

Asked if England could be scarred by what happened in their last Test, Root said: “I wouldn’t say scarred. We’re respectful of some decent bowling in some spin-friendly conditions.

“We are not naive enough to think we will not come up against similar conditions over here, but I think it’s very important that we take the confidence from the good stuff we did out there and brush up on all the other stuff that didn’t quite go to plan.”