Former England cricketer Allan Lamb has slammed India’s preparation for England tour. India had played only one warm-up match against Essex and thus the lack of preparation has been clearly palpable.
In fact, it was a similar story on the South African tour where they played no practice matches. Thus, the Virat Kohli men had to pay the price for their poor preparation for both South Africa and England tour.
Meanwhile, India will look to bounce back after going down in the first two Test matches. India’s batting has looked out of sorts due to no preparation.
Allan Lamb said that it was a similar case with England when they went to Australia for the Ashes series.
“It’s just a case of poor preparation. England goes to Australia and play two First-Class games and then get hammered in the first Test. So it’s imperative that the preparation has to be spot on when you are going out of your comfort zone,” Lamb told TOI.
Meanwhile, Virat Kohli had said that the limited overs series before the first Test match will help them acclimatize to the conditions. However, it is well known that white and red ball versions bring different challenges to the table.
“I don’t know why they curtailed the practice game. And make no mistake, ODIs and Test matches don’t work together. The ball, the field setting – everything is different. When you play a Test, you need to spend time at the crease which is not the case in the shorter formats. These things happen with practice,” Lamb added.
On the other hand, Allan Lamb said that the Indian batting has done the basics wrong. Indian batsmen haven’t been able to adjust to the conditions which are nuts and bolts of Test cricket.
“There’s no point having naughty boy nets. What was more important was to play more games against County sides. It’s practice in the middle that makes the real difference”.
“It’s important that you play under your nose and most of the Indian players are not doing that,” Allan Lamb concluded.