India already has played two major overseas tours this year and are scheduled to play Australia at the end of this year and New Zealand at the starting of the next year. The team played no warm-up game before the Test matches against South Africa and played just a single game in England, that too just a two-day match. India lost both the series by a margin 1-2 and 1-4 respectively, and cricket experts stated that a lack of practice games as the reason for India’s poor performances.
Virat Kohli’s side is set to play three T20Is, four Tests and three ODIs in Australia and the team management is unable to schedule practice games in between that for practice due to a hectic schedule.
It seems like they have found an alternative arrangement that some of India’s Test batsmen will be sent to New Zealand with the India ‘A’ side ahead of the Australia series. That will not only give them some useful practice in similar conditions but also get some valuable advice from the ‘A’ team coach Rahul Dravid.
“The team management thought limited overs games were good enough to prepare for the test series in England. But that wasn’t enough. Now the New Zealand A tour will be in similar conditions to Australia and Rahul Dravid is more than willing to allow Test regulars space in the India A playing eleven to give them practice time. The batsmen, in particular, need to make the most of it,” said a BCCI source to India Today network.
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