Nothing has been going right for the Indian team in the last one month. In fact, there are signs, that things will only go downhill from here on. Firstly, most likely there won’t be any Rohit Sharma in the first Test at Perth, and then Virat Kohli has been in poor form. Now, what will make things worse is, India won’t be playing any warm-up matches before the IND vs AUS Test on Nov 22.
IND vs AUS Test Series
There was a tour game earlier, that was scheduled to take place between India and Ruturaj Gaikwad’s IND A team, but that was cancelled due to unknown reasons. And that only spells trouble for the team. That means, the Indian batters won’t know about the bounce and pace of the WACA pitch, and neither will the bowlers know of the right lengths.
In fact, as far as one can remember, this could be the only time when India has not played a tour game before the Test series, in India. This was much needed after their 0-3 defeat in IND vs NZ Tests at home. Former India batter couldn’t help but wonder, if that was the right approach by Team India.
He also went on to say, that with Virat and Rohit in poor form, and with so many youngsters in the side, they would have loved to play a warm-up match.
Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli Problems
“Especially this time, considering the form the team is in right now. This is a trend where we less warm-up games, but on this particular tour, you needed more. You saw with the IND A batsmen struggle, despite being in top-form in domestic competitions. Also, the drop-in pitches in Australia will have more life,” Sanjay Manjrekar said in an interaction on StarSports.
“The counter from the Indian team could be, when in the past we’ve had less warm-up matches, we’ve performed better. Back in the 90s we had a lot, and we’ve gone on to lose 0-4 Australia. But the fact remains, this time around, because there are a lot of youngsters in key positions, they needed to play..especially with the form Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have, they would have loved to play a warm-up game.”
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