The Indian team is going to play the first match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test series against Australia from November 22 in Perth. The team is currently working hard for the first Test in Perth. Before the start of the series, it was announced that Team India would not play a single practice match. India had to suffer a humiliating 3-0 defeat against New Zealand in the last Test series. Let us tell you, after 24 years, a team clean-swept India at home.

Team India’s form remains a matter of concern due to poor performance in the series against New Zealand. In view of this, former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar gave his opinion regarding India’s form and the need for practice matches.

Practice matches are decreasing in recent times- Sanjay Manjrekar

Before the Test series against Australia, the Indian team was scheduled to play an intra-squad match against India A, but it was cancelled. Sanjay Manjrekar feels that players like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma would have liked to play some practice matches before the series, especially with the kind of form the team is in right now. The former cricketer also talked about India-A’s struggle against Australia-A despite being in form at home.

Sanjay Manjrekar while speaking on ESPNcricinfo said,

Not having practice matches could make a difference, especially this time with the kind of form and confidence the team is going into in Australia. The trend in recent times has been that practice matches are becoming less frequent, but on this particular tour we saw India A batsmen struggle despite being in form in Indian conditions. So yes, India was in dire need of playing more practice matches.

Sanjay Manjrekar also emphasized on how the Indian team can take advantage of not playing practice matches. The team has often performed better when they have not played many practice matches before the series.

India can respond to the fact that the team performed better when they were given fewer practice matches. In the 90s, we played many practice matches and still lost to Australia 0-4. I think the Indian batsmen are getting used to the conditions, but this time there are a lot of young players. “Maybe the previous team didn’t need the experience, but I think we needed some matches here, and I think Virat and Rohit would have liked to play practice matches.”