Sunil Gavaskar criticizes decision to cancel India vs India A match in Australia, needs good sense

Legendary Indian batsman Sunil Gavaskar has expressed regret over Team India's decision to cancel the scheduled practice match between the senior team and India A in Australia. In fact, the senior Indian team is yet to play a single practice match in Australia. The five-Test Border-Gavaskar Trophy series begins. Following India's poor batting performance in the recently concluded home series against New Zealand, Gavaskar has called for common sense to prevail and organize some practice matches for the Indian players.

In the spin-friendly conditions in India, the batsmen struggled against New Zealand, passing 300 just once in the entire Test series. With Australia presenting a completely different challenge in the form of fast, bouncy pitches, Gavaskar believes practice matches are very important.

In particular, out-of-form batsmen like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma and new players like Yashasvi Jaiswal and Sarfaraz Khan could benefit from this.

“Australia can be saved because the pitches there are beautiful to bat on after the first dozen or so overs, after which the ball barely leaves the surface. However, to do that, the team needs a little more practice on those types of grounds. Instead, now we have been told that the practice games before the first Test have been cancelled, won't that benefit youngsters like (Yashshwi) Jaiswal and Sarfaraz (Khan), who will be playing on Australian pitches for the first time? “Playing, to get some runs under your belt and get a feel for what the pitches will be like?” Gavaskar wrote in his column for Sportstar.

“And if they get out early, they can still go to the nets and practice against throwdown specialists or net bowlers. Even for bowlers like Akash Deep and Harshit Rana, Australia has the best conditions to bowl at. It is important to know the length, because it is different from India, and the best learning is in a proper match and not just in net practice,” Gavaskar said.

Eight players in India's squad for the first Test against Australia – Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sarfaraz Khan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Dhruv Jurel, Nitish Reddy, Harshit Rana, Akash Deep and Prasidh Krishna – have never played a senior Test match in Australia.

“Let's just hope that good sense continues, and even now, although it is too late, some practice games can be arranged, even if it is against state A teams like Queensland A and Victoria A. These practice games Gavaskar said, “Players and youngsters who have come to Australia for the first time have good practice and a better chance to succeed.”