Team India head coach Ravi Shastri has admitted that they have requested BCCI to arrange four practice games ahead of the Test series against Australia Down Under.
Meanwhile, Virat Kohli & Co will play a full-fledged series against the Aussies starting from November 21. The two cricketing giants will lock horns in three T20Is, four Tests and three ODIs from November 21 to January 18.
However, India’s decision to not play sufficient warm-up matches in South Africa and England came under the scanner. Thad cancelled their lone tour game in South Africa while they reduced the four-day practice match in England to three days. Thus, the visitors lost the Test series in South Africa by 2-1 while England defeated them by a margin of 4-1.
Ravi Shastri, however, said he was not averse to the idea of playing practice games on tours.
“Absolutely not. Why would we be? You can only see the results [in the England Tests]. Every time after the second Test we have improved. You can still get better. But why can’t we be in that position in the first Test match?,” Shastri said to ESPNCricinfo.
Ravi Shastri doubtful of getting enough tour games
The Team India, though, is in doubt, whether they can get a couple of tour games due to a tight schedule.
“If you have two or three games against weaker sides we don’t mind because it is a game. But when you have a schedule as tight as this and when you have a memorandum of understanding that has already been formulated, with a choc-a-bloc calendar, there is very little you can do. Now, we have requested for a couple of games in Australia before the Test series. But is there space [to play those matches]? That is the question,” he wondered.
“Ideally we would want two three- or four-day games before a Test series. But do you have the time? For example, we have a T20 series in Australia preceding the Test series. There is a 10-day gap before the first Test. These are things that have been approved earlier. It is not in our control,” Ravi Shastri concluded.