India’s Test specialists may use ‘A’ tour of NZ to prepare for Australia series

The BCCI seems to have taken note of the recent series defeats in South Africa and England and are now looking to send the Test specialists to New Zealand along with the India ‘A’ squad ahead of the Australia series.

After the Test series loss in England, India’s head coach Ravi Shastri had said that the team could have done better with a couple of quality practice games as that would have helped them get used to the conditions better. There was this general notion, that the Indian team was not well-prepared to deal with foreign conditions and several former cricketers criticised the management for not taking part in more practice games to chalk out a more potent team combination for the Test matches.

File picture of Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara (REUTERS)

The BCCI seems to have taken note of the recent series defeats in South Africa and England and are now looking to send the Test specialists to New Zealand along with the India ‘A’ squad ahead of the Australia series in order to give them more time to fine tune their game. Source in the know of development told Hindustan Times that the India ‘A’ tour of New Zealand could act as shadow tour for the senior team ahead of the gruelling series against Australia. But the final call needs to be taken by the team management combined with the national selectors.

Earlier, GM Cricket Operations Saba Karim had said: “The BCCI is looking at a situation wherein in future we can organise shadow tours so that the Test players can go before the main series gets underway and get acclimatised to the conditions just like we saw during the England series. But yes, that has to also involve the hosts and their co-operation.”

Hindustan Times had already reported that the team management has requested for bouncy tracks in the upcoming series against West Indies as they wish to prepare for the Australia series.

Clearly, this Indian team under Virat Kohli means business when it says that it wants to be the best travelling outfit in the world.