The Australian cricketers can finally breathe a sigh of relief after the pay dispute saga ended which had left the Australian cricketers without a contract but the focus is again back on cricket.
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With the upcoming tour of Bangladesh scheduled to start later this month, Australia’s head coach Darren Lehmann asserted on the fact that the team won’t be underprepared coming into the two match series despite being out of action since the Champions Trophy in England.
For the past couple of months, there was a doubt surrounding the immediate future of Cricket Australia and it is quite natural. However, coach Lehmann quashed all those worries.
“We’re squeezing enough in this next week, and guys have been doing stuff with their states,” Lehmann was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz.
“Even through the MOU (negotiations) they were training and preparing as though they were playing. So in terms of fitness, they are probably ahead of the game, they’re really strong and fit which is really pleasing. Now it’s just getting their skills up to the required level before we leave,” he added.
Lehmann is happy with the fact that the players got a much-needed break ahead of the busy schedule coming up. Following the test series in Bangladesh, the Aussies will fly to India for an ODI series which will be followed by the Ashes later in the year.
“The break’s been good for some of them, they’ve been at the back of a long summer with a lot of travel in the schedule, so sometimes a refreshed mindset is really important,” he opined.
“They’ve all come in really excited to get going again. The NTCA (National Training Centre of Australia) have been fantastic, they’ve made wickets very similar to what we’ll get in Bangladesh – they’re low and they’re slow, and they will spin.” Lehmann further added.
The squad featuring 14 players are currently in Darwin for a preparatory camp ahead of the two match Test series against the Bangla Tigers.
“There’s three wicket blocks that are more like Dhaka, three wickets that are a bit like Chittagong, and centre wicket facilities so we can play a match and work on our fielding. So in terms of conditions and the heat and humidity that we’ll face when we get there, it’s great preparation especially for those who have come out of winter in the southern states (of Australia).”
“We’ve got enough sessions in place, and then we’ve got enough time when we get there (to Bangladesh) weather permitting,” Lehmann said.
He was confident given the fact Australia will play a warm up game ahead of the Test series.
“I think we’ll be fine, we’ve got a two-day game which is a mixture of players, the wicket will be very similar to what we encounter for the first Test then we’ve got training sessions before that Test starts as well.
The idea is to sweat it out as much as possible before the tour eventually commences. “We’re squashing a lot into the eight or nine days before we go to Dhaka, then we just have to see what the weather and the facilities are like when we get there,” Lehmann concluded.
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