India will tour Australia for five Test matches next month.
The anticipation around the upcoming Border-Gavaskar Trophy is palpable. India are Australia are slated to square off in a five-match Test series for the first time in over three decades.
The marquee series is slated to get underway on November 22 in Perth and the action will then shift to Adelaide (December 6-10), where both teams will face each other in a Day-Night Test. The last three Tests are set to take place in Brisbane (December 14-18), Melbourne (December 26-30), and Sydney (January 3-7).
With 1.5 months remaining for the series, a report published in PTI claims that the Indian team will depart for Australia at least two weeks prior to the first Test and will be playing one or two intra-squad matches against the ‘A’ team colleagues to fine-tune their preparations.
India’s home Test series against New Zealand will conclude on November 5 in Mumbai if the third match goes into the final day.
It is learnt that the Test squad will be leaving from Mumbai few days after the series and akin to the last tour of South Africa, the BCCI could have a four-day game between India and India A, which people in the know of things reckon will provide Rohit Sharma’s men with quality match simulation.
The India A team is also supposed to play a couple of A Tests and that particular squad, comprising the country’s bench strength, is expected to leave the Indian shores by October 25 for its series.
Over the years, the BCCI witnessed a decline in quality of practice matches and there came a time during MS Dhoni’s tenure as Test captain when most of these tour games got unofficial status so that all 15 in the squad could bat and bowl. Earlier, these matches used to have first-class status.
It was before the 2021 World Test Championship final in England, during the peak COVID-19 pandemic, that the senior team introduced the concept of intra-squad match simulation.
During the the 2023-24 series tour of South Africa, both India A and India were present in the rainbow nation at the same time. In between the two ‘A’ Tests, the second-string did take on the main team before the latter’s opening game at the Centurion.
“Normally, home countries nowadays don’t want to provide their best domestic talent for practice. It always helps in quality match practice if a bunch of India hopefuls are pitted against the stars. These are players knocking on the doors and eager to perform,” a BCCI insider quoted as saying by PTI.
Before the Day-Night Test in Adelaide, the India senior team will reportedly play a two-day pink ball game at the Manuka Oval in Canberra on November 30 and December 1 against Prime Minister’s XI.
This will be a time when two separate Indian teams will be in two different countries at the same time. The Suryakumar Yadav-led T20I side will play four matches in South Africa between November 8-15.
The India ‘A’ team for Australia is expected to be picked after the first round of Ranji Trophy games (from October 11-14).
(With PTI Inputs)