It is reported that the Indian skipper Virat Kohli will give a green signal to play a practice match on the Australia tour. The senior players of the side want to play practice matches before taking on Australia in the four-match Test series. In fact, it is well known that the Indian team hasn’t played a lot of practice matches whenever they have toured overseas.
Kohli had said on the South Africa tour in 2018 that it doesn’t make any sense to play practice games on the pitches which they are not going to get in the real matches. Consequently, the team management and Kohli had decided to opt for the net session in place of the practice match.
Virat Kohli has evaded playing practice matches in the past.
In fact, the last time India played a practice match was in England but they had received a bad pitch. The visitors decided not to play a practice match before the two-match series against New Zealand as they were continuously playing limited-overs format. However, the players have not played over the last two months due to the coronavirus and they would be in need of the practice when they get back to the action.
BCCI Treasurer Arun Dhumal has confirmed that the Indian team is ready to quarantine themselves for the Australia tour for two weeks. Dhumal also revealed that the team is ready to play all the four matches at Adelaide Oval. However, BCCI President Sourav Ganguly has ruled out any chances of five Test matches.
Virat Kohli will look to repeat the success on Australian soil.
“By the look of it, Virat Kohli will have to say yes to the practice game before the four-match Test series against Australia. It’s slightly far off but this time the team is certain that a practice game would be important to prepare well for the Test series,” a team source told Sportskeeda on Saturday.
There is no doubt that the Indian players will want to practice before the all-important series. BCCI has also come up with a four-stage program so that their players can get back to practice.
The T20 World Cup looks likely to be postponed whereas India-Australia bilateral series can go ahead as planned. Cricket Australia will also suffer a huge loss of 300 million Australian dollars if the tour is canceled due to the pandemic.