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The Indian captain, Rohit Sharma revealed why they decided to scrap the practice-match against India A before the start of the Border-Gavsakar Trophy.
Rohit Sharma explained why India will skip the practice game vs India-A for match simulations. (Picture Credit: PTI)
The Indian captain Rohit Sharma opened up on the team’s decision to scrap the practice match against the India A side before the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series in Australia. Rohit suggested that match simulations would ensure that everyone on the side could play more as opposed to a practice match.
Following India’s third Test defeat to New Zealand, the Indian captain suggested that a practice match would not be the most effective use of the three days they have to prepare themselves for the upcoming Australia series.
“I think sometimes when you play that practice match, we are travelling with a squad of 19 players and only 3 days were a lot allotted to us. And I don’t know how much workload can we get done in those 3 days in terms of getting everyone prepared,” Rohit shared at the post-match press conference.
“So, we feel that rather than having that the match simulation where the batters can spend more time in the middle, batting in the middle and then the bowlers as well can bowl a lot of balls. So that is something that we as a team feel more comfortable doing rather than playing a practice game because game time is not a problem,” he added.
Rohit felt that most of the members in the squad had enough game time under their belt and it was more important to have the players work in training and also get some good hard practice as well to ensure that they were in the best possible position to perform.
“All of us have been playing a lot of cricket. So, it’s just about spending time in the middle. For example, if a batter gets out, he has to sit in the dugout for the whole day, and it doesn’t get too much of batting done then,” he revealed.
“Whereas in match simulation kind of a thing, you know, the batters can go out and play 50-70 balls and then if you feel that he’s had enough, we can retire him out and then get someone else in,” he added.
“So that is the plan we want to maximise these 3 days that we have got. And I feel this is the best way to do it where you know, the batters can have a lot of time in the middle and the bowlers at the same time can get their workload in terms of getting the number of balls bold in the middle,” Rohit concluded.
