Later this year, Team India will visit Australia for a five Test match series. This will be the first time these two cricketing giants will come up against each other for five Tests during a tour since the 1991-92 season. They have done it again, this time India retains one more Test series in Australia after the last visit of Down Under tour which happened in 2020-21. However, the last time India went to Australia was when the team under the leadership of Virat Kohli played three ODIs, three T20s and two practice matches of three days each before the Test series. But considering there will be a five match series, the preparatory work will be a bit different in a few days time.
Cricbuzz reported that the warm-up game which is the only one planned for India will feature only the players in the squad. A senior men’s team will face the ‘A’ team of India who are also the Test bench sitters, on tour at that time.
A few weeks before the commencement of the series, Team India A will get to Australia then the senior team that will be captained by Rohit Sharma. They will play two games against A team of Australia. Still, the India ‘A’ squad shall remain in Australia for a bit longer in order to engage two days of internal games with the senior squad.
In addition, it was reported that this intra-squad game will take place at the WACA Ground in Perth from the fifteenth to the seventeenth of November. On the other hand, the first Test match of the series between India and Australia will be hosted at the new Optus Stadium in Perth starting on November 22.
During the tour, Ruturaj Gaikwad will lead India ‘A’ as the captain. As part of the tour, they are scheduled to have a couple of encounters with Australia ‘A’. The first one will be held at Great Barrier Reef Arena between October 31 and November 3 while the second unofficlal match will be held over the Melbourne Cricket Ground from November 7 to 10.
“Since this is an internal competition, it’s really India’s call on how they want to manage the situation. Perhaps a few of the Test players might feature in the India A games, but again that will be the discretion of the BCCI. Hardly any countries seem to engage in warm up matches these days. Even Australia did not have any such games prior to their last series in India,” an official of cricket Australia quoted to Cricbuzz.
Meanwhile BCCI selectors are yet to finalize India ‘ A’ squad but it is likely to be released in a few days.
The Australia ‘A’ team, however, will be revealed by chief selector George Bailey on Monday (October 14) during the press briefing.
Bailey is also likely to give the latest news regarding the status of all-rounder Cameron Green who is at risk of missing out on the five-match series because of a back injury.
