Rohit Sharma, the India captain, confirmed that he may miss the series-opening Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, in Perth, due to personal reasons.
Rohit also explained the rationale behind the Indian team think-tank shelving a planned three-day warm-up game against India A ahead of the series-opener.
“Right now I am not too sure whether I will be going, but let’s see. Fingers crossed,” Rohit said on Sunday.
Rohit along with a large India squad, will depart for Perth in two batches – on November 10 and 11 – and the captain may come back home for a while due to personal reasons.
India’s three-day stint at the WACA ground has been switched into a simulation practice rather than a three-day match against India A, which will finish its second four-day game against Australia on November 10 before travelling to Perth.
“Rather than a practice match, we planned a very match-simulation kind of a thing with India A. We are travelling with a squad of 19 players and it was only three days that were allotted to us. I don’t know how much workload we can get done in those three days in terms of getting everyone prepared,” Rohit said.
“As a management, we feel that we would rather have a match simulation where the batters can spend more time in the middle and then the bowlers as well can bowl a lot of balls. 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. It’s just about spending time in the middle.
“For example, if a batter gets out, he has to sit in the dugout for the whole day, and he doesn’t get too much batting done then. Whereas, in a match simulation, the batters can go out and play 50-70 balls and then if we feel that he has had enough, we can retire him out and then get someone else in. That is the plan.”
Rohit said that the squad wants to be fully prepared for the bouncier conditions in Australia. “We want to maximise these three days, 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,” he said.
“That was the idea and we will be training at WACA which is as close to Optus where you have that bounce and carry. Hopefully, we can use those three days perfectly and maximise how much ever we can from our point of view.”
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