Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma would have liked to play warm-up matches before the first Test match in Perth, said Sanjay Manjrekar. The Indian team, which flew out for the tour of Australia in batches do not play a single warm-up game before the opening Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
India even cancelled their intra-squad match vs India A and opted for match simulations in the centre wicket at the WACA in Perth before the opening Test match at the Optus Stadium.
Speaking about the issue, Manjrekar said that India desperately needed to play the warm-up matches because of the kind of form and confidence they are taking into the all-important BGT.
India were recently blanked at home by New Zealand – the first time in the history of Test cricket. Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli faced a lot of criticism for their performance after scoring 91 and 93 runs respectively in the recently concluded 3-match series.
“The lack of a warm-up game might make a difference, especially this time because of the kind of form and confidence the team is going with to Australia. It has been a trend in recent times that there are less and less of warm-up games but on this particular tour, we saw that the India A batters struggle despite being in form in the Indian conditions. So yes, India desperately needed more warm-up games,” Sanjay Manjrekar said on ESPNcricinfo.
Manjrekar predicted that the Australian pitches will have more grass this time around, which could trouble young Indian batters. Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sarfaraz Khan, and Dhruv Jurel have not played any Test matches in Australia so far, and Manjrekar believed that those players needed time to adjust to the pace and bounce of the pitch.
“This time, the drop in pitches of Australia will have a little more life, so even more so,” Manjrekar said.
“India can counter with the fact that the team has performed better when they have been given less warm-up matches. In the 90s, we had many and yet lost 0-4 to Australia. I think Indian batters are getting used to conditions, but this time around, there are many young players. Maybe the earlier team which had experience did not need it, but I think we needed some games here, and I think that Virat and Rohit would have loved to play warm-up games,” he further added.
The Indian team have arrived in Australia and have already begun training. The team will take on Pat Cummins’ Australia in a 5-match Test series, which will potentially decided at least one of the finalists in the World Test Championship Final, set to be played at the Lord’s in 2025.
