"India doesn't do the same when they host those countries" - Virat Kohli's coach on Australia opting out of warm-up game
Former Delhi cricketer and Virat Kohli's childhood coach Rajkumar Sharma tried to make sense of Australia's decision not to play any warm-up games before their all-important Test series against India.
The visitors feel that they will get pitches that will be completely different from what the hosts will dish out in the first Test at Nagpur. They have decided to prepare themselves and have called up some domestic net bowlers.
Speaking to India News, Rajkumar Sharma explained the difference between the practice games that India provide to the opposition and the ones that they are provided when they tour overseas. He said:
"I understand Australia's decision not to play the warm-up game because whenever we go to SENA (South Africa, England, New Zealand, Australia) countries, they often get opposition that are considerably weaker and pitches that are completely different from what they would get in the main series. However, India doesn't do the same when they host those countries."
Understandable that India don't want to show their cards: Rajkumar Sharma
Rajkumar Sharma recalled the days when players in domestic cricket used to wait for opportunities to play and leave an impression against touring teams in their warm-up games.
However, he also understands why teams these days don't want to give the opposition any advantage coming into the Test series. On this, Rajkumar stated:
"During our days, it was an opportunity for youngsters to score runs and pick wickets against the touring teams and make an impression. But the culture has changed now and given the fierce rivalry, neither team wants to give an inch to the opposition. It's understandable that the hosts don't want to show their cards by giving an indication of the pitch that Australia could get."
Test squad for the first two Tests against Australia: Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KS Bharat (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), R. Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, Suryakumar Yadav.