In a bid to gear up for the all-important Border-Gavaskar Trophy Down Under, Team India will now play a four-day practice match against Cricket Australia XI at the request of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
The only warm-up match will start on November 28 instead of November 29 which was the initial plan. It will be played at the iconic Sydney Cricket Ground.
"We can confirm the tour match between the Cricket Australia XI and India at the Sydney Cricket Ground will now be a four-day match, starting on November 28," a CA spokesperson said.
"We have worked with the BCCI around a request for additional match preparation for their team ahead of the four-match Domain Test Series against Australia, and were happy to accommodate this by scheduling an extra day as part of this fixture, at the same venue of the fourth Test match of the series," he further added.
India's preparation for overseas tours has come under heavy scrutiny after two consecutive Test series losses outside Asia. Ahead of the five-Test series in England, India were scheduled to play only one four-day warm-up game against the county side Essex. Notably, the team management had decided to reduce the practice match to three days and fielded all 18 players in it.
Similarly, the world No. 1 Test side were slated to play a two-day warm-up match against South Africa before the first Test. However, the Indian team management had opted out of the practice match and rather conducted their own training sessions.
India ‘A’ recently played a four-day first-class game against New Zealand ‘A’ in Mount Maunganui with five Test aspirants namely Prithvi Shaw, Ajinkya Rahane, Parthiv Patel, Hanuma Vihari and Murali Vijay. The unofficial Test ended in a draw with the visitors gaining plenty of positives.
Shaw and Vihari impressed one and all in the match, scoring back to back half-centuries and strengthened their claims for the first Test in Australia, slated to start on December 6 at Adelaide. While Shaw scored 62 and 50 in the first and second innings respectively, Vihari resisted the scores of 86 and 51.
