Australia to skip practice matches before India Tests, McDonald says
Australia head coach Andrew McDonald said his team will not play any practice matches ahead of next year’s five-Test Border Gavaskar Trophy in India, which is scheduled to start on January 21 in Nagpur. McDonald told 'cricket.com.au' that a short preparatory camp in conditions similar to the sub-continent would be a preferable approach to a practice game.
The five-Test series will run for over a month with matches in Nagpur, Chennai, Guwahati and Ranchi before the final Test in Ahmedabad. Australia will still play tour games against local sides during upcoming assignments against South Africa and England. During their 2023 tour of India, the Australians held a camp in Alur near Bengaluru to prepare for the series. McDonald said the management is assessing options used previously, including trips to the UAE and a camp in India, to determine how to manage individual players.
"We feel as though we've got enough time to immerse ourselves in those conditions. We won't be taking on a practice game. It'll just be more around the location," McDonald told 'cricket.com.au.'
"We have gone to the UAE previously and we have also gone into India last time into Bangalore, so we're just working through what that would look like in terms of how we then manage the individuals," he added.
"Ultimately, if you can have a dedicated venue that you're able to use and replicate as close to the conditions that you believe you may get in the first Test match or throughout a Test series, that's ideally what you want," he said. "You case those locations — you want a connection in terms of conditions and climate. We believe we'll get that right in terms of where we go, it just hasn't been confirmed yet."
McDonald outlined that players who are shortlisted for the India tour but not in contention for the preceding home Test series against New Zealand would be expected to prepare for the India tour rather than play in the Big Bash. Matthew Kuhnemann, Todd Murphy, Cooper Connolly, Peter Handscomb and Matthew Renshaw were named as some of the players in contention. "A lot of that would happen on the back of the four Tests against New Zealand, seeing where players are at. We'll potentially have some different players with different skill sets that we believe can perform in India, so it won't necessarily be the squad that finishes the Test series (against NZ that then heads to India)."
"There'll be some players that we need to put a little bit more prep into, and that'll start in Australia also, balancing out Big Bash commitments and things like that," he said.
Australia have not won a Test series in India since the 2004-05 season, and McDonald said many selection and preparatory decisions will be finalised after the four Tests against New Zealand that precede the India tour.
