India turns attention to Australia following New Zealand series loss

Mumbai: India have quickly turned their attention to their upcoming Test assignment in Australia as they attempt to stay in contention of reaching next year’s ICC World Test Championship Final in London.

Rohit Sharma’s side suffered a massive blow in their quest for a third consecutive appearance in the World Test Championship Final when they fell to a 3-0 series whitewash at the hands of New Zealand and now must win at least four matches in Australia to qualify for the one-off Test at Lord’s next year.

India were scheduled to take on India A in a three-day practice match ahead of the first Test in Perth from November 22, but Rohit confirmed the team have since cancelled that contest in favour of match simulation against the same side that will allow their batters to maximise their time in the middle and get used to the conditions in Australia.

“Look, you know, rather than practice match, we planned a very match simulation kind of a thing with India A,” he said.

“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.

“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,” he said.

“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,” Rohit 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,” he said.

“I think we’ll be training at WACA, which is as close to Optus (Stadium) 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,” Rohit said.

Rohit knows he must lift his output in Australia after he managed just 91 runs across three matches against New Zealand, while the India skipper is also looking for fellow veteran Virat Kohli to find his best form Down Under, an ICC report said.

Kohli managed a decent score of 70 in the second innings of the first Test against the Kiwis in Bengaluru, but failed to make it into double figures in four of his other five hits during the series.

“Obviously, it’s a cause of concern without a doubt,” Rohit said of the lack of runs from himself and Kohli.

“If the batters are not performing, that is a cause of concern. But what’s done is done now. I think as a player, as a captain, as a team, we all have to look forward and see how we can correct what we didn’t manage to achieve here. There is a good opportunity for us to go and do something really, really special in Australia,” he added.

India Test squad to face Australia: Rohit Sharma (c), Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant (wk), Sarfaraz Khan,

Dhruv Jurel (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar.