Virat Kohli in a practice session© BCCI/Sportzpics
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)’s decision to cancel a warm-up match against India A, ahead of the start of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, met with plenty of criticism. Considering the poor form that many Indian cricketers have displayed off late, the Indian team has reportedly decided to schedule an intra-squad 3-day practice match. However, the board wants to hold the match behind closed doors, with no public viewing possible. In the process, the BCCI wants to keep all matters internal ahead of the start of the series.
The intra-squad warm-up match at the WACA is scheduled to take place from Friday to Sunday. As soon as the warm-up game was scheduled the BCCI ensured that no public viewing was made possible, with the match taking place in lockdown conditions, as per The Western Australian.
A set of Indian players, who reached Australia a few days ago, have already begun their training sessions. Virat Kohli was among the first ones to land Down Under but he gave the first practice session on Tuesday a miss. Jasprit Bumrah and Ravichandran Ashwin also missed the ‘optional’ session.
However, the off-coloured KL Rahul and young opening star Yashasvi Jaiswal, both of whom are expected to open in the Perth Test in Rohit Sharma‘s absence, were spotted putting the hard yards in the nets. Wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant was also part of the optional training session.
The Indian cricket team needs to beat Australi 4-0 in the 5-match series if they are to keep their World Test Championship final qualification hopes in their own hands. After the 0-3 series defeat to New Zealand, India dropped down to second spot in the points table while Australia are top.
The form of top players like Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja, Rohit Sharma, etc. will play a big role in deciding the fate of the series. As for skipper Rohit, it isn’t yet known if he will feature in the first Test at Perth.
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