India batting legend Sunil Gavaskar has warned Rohit Sharma and co. to be ready when they tour down under for a five-Test series later this year, as he said that Australians are thirsty for revenge.
India has defeated Australia in the Test series the last two times they have toured the country and have not lost the Border-Gavaskar Trophy since 2017. India has won the Test series 2-1 in both the times on 2018-19 and 2020-21 tours.
Like the last tour, India will play one day-night Test in Adelaide, and the two teams will prepare for the match with a two-day warm-up game scheduled between the first and second Tests.
The match between India's touring team and the Prime Minister's XI will similarly be day-night, but batting veteran Sunil Gavaskar believes it should have been a full-fledged first-class clash.
Gavaskar says while he understands that the senior players who will play a major role in the five-match series can be rested, the rest of the squad could have benefitted from such a fixture.
“The news that the regular match for touring teams against the Australian Prime Minister’s XI has been reduced to a 2-day game is a disappointing one. By all means, rest the seniors and let them not even travel to Canberra for the game but give the newer younger players a proper first-class game rather than a 2-day game which will be neither here nor there. After all, the team is going there to play cricket and not to take rest,” Gavaskar wrote in Mid-day.
Gavaskar says there’s plenty of time for the BCCI to get the match changed to a three-day affair which will come in handy for the inexperienced players of India’s touring party.
“The Australians are thirsting for revenge and the Indians will have to be razor sharp to get a hat-trick of series wins there. There’s still time to change it to a 3-day game and give the younger inexperienced players a better chance to succeed against the World Test Champions. C’mon BCCI, you can do it,” he added.
An India A squad will face Australia A in a series of four-day matches. The first of these games will be played from October 31 to November 1 at the Great Barrier Reef Arena in Mackay, with the second at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Following the conclusion of the A series, the Indian Test team will face the India A squad in an intra-squad encounter in Perth on November 15-17.
