India decided to cancel their only warm-up fixture before the coming Border Gavaskar Trophy (BGT), opting for more time in the nets and middle-wicket practice in an intra-squad match at the WACA Stadium in Perth — a decision that former England captain Michael Vaughan can’t wrap his head around.
Before the BGT opener at the Optus Stadium in Perth, India were scheduled to play a practice match against India ‘A’, but head coach Gautam Gambhir-led Indian think-tank scrapped that even before arriving in Australia.
“I can’t get my head around a team like India only wanting to play an intra-squad game leading into a series against Australia in their own backyard,” Vaughan told ‘Fox Cricket‘. “I just can’t see how you get yourself in that competitive mindset of consequence by playing an intra-squad game. Time will tell.”
India, however, are not training at the venue of the first Test in Perth, the Optus Stadium. The squad is having closed-door practice sessions at the WACA stadium, which is five-minute’s drive away from the Optus and offers practice pitches that are of the same bouncy nature as the designated venue.
“I’m surprised that this Indian side didn’t want at least one game of cricket, and the WACA’s the perfect venue because it’s a similar pitch to Optus (Stadium), so you get used to the bounce,” Vaughan said. “These players have a different kind of mindset to what we had, whereas we probably needed more games.
“The modern player maybe believes that they don’t need (tour matches). They think they get enough cricket throughout the year and they can react and just adapt. I just like to see teams win and stick a marker down,” he added. “They’re playing 12 months of the year and get straight into it, but it’ll be intriguing to see how both sets of players settle on that first day when they’re playing the longer form.”
The first Test will be followed by the pink-ball day-night Test in Adelaide, after which the series will move to Brisbane for the third match of the series. Melbourne will host the Boxing Day (fourth) Test, with Sydney welcoming the two teams for the series-ending New Year Test.
