India will open their T20 World Cup 2022 campaign against Pakistan at MCG on October 23.
The showpiece tournament will get underway on October 16 with the qualifying round matches, while the Men in Blue will open their campaign against arch-rivals Pakistan t MCG on October 23.
After landing in Australia, the Indian team wasted no time and had their first training session at the iconic WACA in Perth on Friday (October 7).
Notably, the BCCI has arranged a couple of warm-up matches for Team India against a Western Australian XI on October 10 and 13. Subsequently, Rohit and his men will travel to Brisbane, where they will play their official World Cup warm-up matches against Australia and New Zealand on October 17 and October 19, respectively.
Explaining India's decision to keep their base in Perth, the team's strength and conditioning coach Soham Desai said players will use the 8-day preparatory period to unwind and build on specific skillsets which will help them to acclimatize to the Australian conditions.
"The upcoming 8-10 days are going to be very crucial for us, leading into the World Cup. We can't thank the team management and the BCCI enough for getting us these 8 days because, we always feel we are thrust into the big tournaments, playing so much cricket as the Indian team. But these 8 days, we are going to gradually build ourselves both physically and on the skills front, to lead us nicely into the first game in the World Cup," Soham Desai said in a video shared by BCCI.
"The goal in Perth specifically is to get some time on these pitches as well as to break the monotony of playing the bilateral series, back to back in India.
"So it's going to be a good time for the group to unwind as well build on the specific skills that are required for Australia. That's the overall plan, leading into the World Cup," he added.
Here’s the video: