UK pay-TV heavyweight TNT Sports has unveiled a last-minute exclusive coverage deal for the England women’s cricket tour of India, which begins today (December 6) in Mumbai.

Through the tie-up, TNT Sports (now part of the Warner Bros. Discovery group), will provide exclusive coverage to a UK and Irish audience of the four tour fixtures against India - three Twenty20s and one test match.

Viewers will be able to watch the action on both the TNT Sports linear channels and the Discovery+ streaming service.

Rights to bilateral cricket series are sold by the home team’s cricket board, meaning the TNT Sports deal will ultimately have been an agreement struck with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

The three T20s run through to December 10, before the test begins on December 14.

In India, Viacom18 will be covering the series, having struck a five-year deal with the BCCI in August.

In terms of its other sets of cricket rights, TNT Sports covers action from the Caribbean and New Zealand, through deals with those countries’ respective boards, and also shows a range of T20 domestic league action from around the world.

Home rights to England's international teams, however - both men’s and women’s sides - are held by its main pay-TV rival, Sky Sports.

This acquisition by TNT Sports comes with the next England men’s tour of India - a five-test affair - less than two months away (the first test begins on January 25), with UK broadcast rights as yet unsold.

The BCCI traditionally carries out its overseas broadcast rights deals in a last-minute and piecemeal fashion.

The last England men’s tour of India, for example, saw commercial free-to-air network Channel 4 snap up rights to show test match action less than a week before the series started.