Australia head coach Andrew McDonald has confirmed that his team will not be playing in practice matches before the high-octane Border-Gavaskar series and instead will have a preparatory camp, similar to the sub-continent conditions.
The series is set to start from January 21 in Nagpur in what remains one of the most anticipated Test series around the world. Australia last won a Test series in India in 2004-05, and India remains their final frontier. Australia will also be playing in a four-match Test series against New Zealand before the India series.
“We feel as though we’ve got enough time to immerse ourselves in those conditions. We won’t be taking on a practice game. It’ll just be more around the location,” McDonald told ‘cricket.com.au ‘.
McDonald further revealed the options Australia have in place for the series. “We’ve got a couple of options there. We have gone to the UAE previously, and we have also gone into India last time into Bangalore, so we’re just working through what that would look like in terms of how we then manage the individuals.”
Australia want dedicated venue to simulate conditions
Meanwhile, Australia are looking at a dedicated venue to simulate conditions that are expected at the venues for the Test series. “Ultimately, if you can have a dedicated venue that you’re able to use and replicate as close to the conditions that you believe you may get in the first Test match or throughout a Test series, that’s ideally what you want,” he said.
“You case those locations – you want a connection in terms of conditions and climate. We believe we’ll get that right in terms of where we go; it just hasn’t been confirmed yet.” The Test series will take place in Nagpur, Chennai, Guwahati, Ranchi and Ahmedabad. The last time the Aussies came to India in 2023, they had a preparatory camp in Alur near Bengaluru.
Australia want India contention players to not focus on BBL
Meanwhile, the head coach further stressed that they would want players who are shortlisted to play in Indian conditions and who are not in contention to play in the preceding Test series against New Zealand, to focus on preparing for the tour and not focus on the Big Bash League.ย
“A lot of that would happen on the back of the four Tests against New Zealand, seeing where players are at. We’ll potentially have some different players with different skill sets that we believe can perform in India, so it won’t necessarily be the squad that finishes the Test series (against NZ that then heads to India).
“There’ll be some players that we need to put a little bit more prep into, and that’ll start in Australia also, balancing out Big Bash commitments and things like that,” he said.
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