The Indian management decided to scrap their scheduled warm-up fixture before landing in Australia.
Team India’s highly-anticipated Test tour of Australia is all set to get underway on November 22 in Perth. The two teams are slated to square off in a five-match series for the first time in over three decades.
Prior to the challenging assignment, the Indian team was scheduled to play a warm-up fixture against India ‘A’ to fine-tune their preparations. However, the Gautam Gambhir-led think-tank decided to scrap that even before landing in Australia.
Instead, the visitors opted for net sessions and centre-wicket match simulation practices – a decision that left former England skipper Michael Vaughan baffled.
"I can't get my head around a team like India only wanting to play an intra-squad game leading into a series against Australia in their own backyard," Vaughan told 'Fox Cricket'. "I just can't see how you get yourself in that competitive mindset of consequence by playing an intra-squad game. Time will tell."
While the first Test is slated to take place in Perth’s Optus Stadium, the Indian players are having closed-door practice sessions at the old WACA Ground, which offers pitches that are of the same bouncy nature as the designated venue.
"I'm surprised that this Indian side didn't want at least one game of cricket, and the WACA's the perfect venue because it's a similar pitch to Optus (Stadium), so you get used to the bounce," Vaughan said. "These players have a different kind of mindset to what we had, whereas we probably needed more games.
"The modern player maybe believes that they don't need (tour matches). They think they get enough cricket throughout the year and they can react and just adapt. I just like to see teams win and stick a marker down," he added. "They're playing 12 months of the year and get straight into it, but it'll be intriguing to see how both sets of players settle on that first day when they're playing the longer form."
After the series opener in Perth, the action will 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).