Indian skipper Rohit Sharma addressed the decision to scrap the practice match against India A in preparation for the upcoming Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia, scheduled to start from November 22. Sharma emphasized that, despite the scrapping of the match, the focus remains on ensuring the team's readiness for the challenging series against India. Rohit believed that match simulations would be beneficial for players to hone their skills ahead of the most crucial series.
"Look, you know, rather than practice match, we planned a very match simulation kind of a thing with India A. I think sometimes when you play that practice match, we're travelling with a squad of 19 players and it was only three days that were allotted to us. And I don't know how much workload we can get done in those three days in terms of getting everyone prepared,” Rohit said during the press conference.
"So we, as a management as well, we feel that rather than having that, the match simulation where the batters can spend more time in the middle, batting in the middle, and then the bowlers as well can bowl a lot of balls, so that is something that, we as a team feel more comfortable doing rather than playing a practice game because game time is not a problem. All of us have been playing a lot of cricket. So it's just about spending time in the middle."
Rohit Sharma expressed confidence in terms of getting enough time to prepare ahead of the Australia series. The series against Australia is crucial particularly after India faced a disappointing 0-3 series defeat against New Zealand.
"If a batter gets out, he has to sit in the dugout for the whole day, you know, and he doesn't get too much of batting done. Whereas in match simulation kind of a thing, you know, the batters can go out and play 50-70 balls and then if you feel that he's had enough, we can retire him out and then get someone else in. So that is the plan," Sharma said.
"We want to maximise this three-day slot that we've got and I feel this is the best way to do it where the batters can have a lot of time in the middle and the bowlers at the same time can get their workload in terms of getting the number of balls bowled in the middle. So that was the idea and we will be."
"I think we'll be training at WACA, which is as close to Optus where you have that bounce and carry. So hopefully we can use those three days perfectly and maximise how much ever we can from our point of view."