The Indian team will leave for Perth today (Thursday, 6 October) for the T20 World Cup where they will stay for a week to adjust to the Australian conditions.
Ahead of the departure, India’s head coach Rahul Dravid explained why the team is leaving early for Australia. He added that the team’s early arrival in Perth will help them adapt to the pace and bounce of the pitches, especially when almost half of the team has not played a T20I game in the country before.
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“We will get a chance to spend a few days more sessions in Perth and then there will be a few matches. Australia is quite unique in terms of pace and bounce on those wickets and a lot of our players haven’t played a lot of T20 cricket in Australia,” Dravid said in the post-match press conference, following India’s 49-run loss to South Africa. After. In the third T20I at Indore.
It is to be noted that the key players of the team – Suryakumar Yadav and Arshdeep Singh do not have the experience of playing competitive cricket in Australia. Apart from them, Harshal Patel and Deepak Hooda had toured Australia but as members of the India U19 squad in 2009 and 2013 respectively. And in terms of traveling reserve, leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi has never played cricket in Australia.
“The idea was to give myself a chance to practice a little more, get used to (the conditions) and get some game time to practice. Having gone to Australia earlier (in my playing days), it takes some time to get used to that pace and bounce and hopefully once we practice, we will be able to discuss sessions, strategies and tactics That’s how we’re supposed to play. ,” said Dravid.
“It’s important (going early) because we get a little extra time and have a very young team with a lot of people who haven’t played a lot of cricket in Australia. So hopefully this will help us,” he said.
Indian skipper Rohit Sharma also echoed the same reasons when he was asked about the team’s early departure to Australia. He said that only seven or eight of the fifteen squad members had gone to Australia before and that would help them adapt to the playing conditions.
“Not many people have been to Australia. That was the reason why we are going there early and get used to the conditions there, which is why we are going to Perth first, try and play on those bouncy pitches and See what we can do there. Of the fifteen members of the squad, only seven or eight have been to Australia before, so half of the team hasn’t been there before
“We wanted to try to go early and get some practice games, like we have had some practice games against Western Australia and two ICC practice games. So, this will help us get into our rhythm, what kind of combinations we can play,” Rohit said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
In Perth, the Indian team will play a warm-up match against the Western Australian state team. Thereafter, they will travel to Brisbane to play official T20 World Cup warm-up matches against Australia and New Zealand at the Gabba on 17 and 19 October respectively.
India, along with Pakistan, Bangladesh, South Africa and two qualifiers, are in Group 2 of the Super 12 stage in the T20 World Cup. In addition, they will begin their campaign in a high voltage match against arch-rivals Pakistan at the MCG on 23 October, followed by 27 October (against the first qualifier side at the SCG), 30 October (against South Africa at Perth Stadium). There will be matches. 2 November (against Bangladesh at the Adelaide Oval) and 6 November (against the second qualifier side at the MCG).
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