The Australian men’s team will be having a training camp in Bengaluru ahead of the opening game of the four-match Test series in India. The visiting side will train at the KSCA Cricket Ground in Alur, Bengaluru before reaching the venue of the first Test. The Australian side, headed by Pat Cummins, left for India from Sydney on Tuesday, January 31. The touring side is not going to play a warm-up match in India.
However, the Aussies are making sure there is no stone unturned in getting their preparations right in ahead of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, which is also the final assignment for both teams ahead of the World Test Championship final.
Australia made the specific request to train in Bengaluru in order to have an in-depth understanding of Indian pitches before they head to Nagpur. The Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium will host the series opener and center-wicket practice at the venue is likely to be available on the last 3 days in the lead-up to the Test. Notably, the Australian team was served up with seamer-friendly practice pitches in Sri Lanka last year for a series that was dominated by the spinners.
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During a chat with Fox Cricket, head coach, Andre McDonald said, “You never get guarantees over those practice game surfaces you get … we feel as though we can control the surfaces here. We feel as though we get a bit more control in Bangalore to replicate what we’re going to come up against and then we go into Nagpur fresh.”
Australia also had a short training camp at the Bon Andrew’s Oval in North Sydney where they managed to create a pitch that resembled a sub-continent wicket. Australia spinners Nathan Lyon, Ashton Agar, Mitchell Swepson, and Todd Murphy all bowled with the SG balls (and not the Kookaburra) to get a feel of the conditions in India.
The scuffed up pitch Australia have used to prepare for India. #INDvAUS pic.twitter.com/BaTu4dkOE2
— Andrew McGlashan (@andymcg_cricket) January 29, 2023
The team management worked with the curator and managed to work on the pitch diligently and even created artificial footmarks to simulate Day 4 and 5 conditions in North Sydney, according to the report. Notably, the trio of Agar, Swepson, and Murphy were also withdrawn from the Big Bash League matches over the weekend to get into Test-match mode ahead of their India tour.
Elaborating the same, McDonald said, “The surfaces we got are very similar to what we’re going to confront in India, which is very difficult to replicate. We feel as though we’ve got close to that, so the ground staff has done a fantastic job.”
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Australia has not won a Test series in India since the 2004-05 season. in 2017, Australia stunned India in Pune before the hosts fought back and won the series 2-1 under Virat Kohli’s captaincy. Australia is under added pressure as they have also lost their last two home series to India.
