BGT | No practice games for Australia before next year's India Test: McDonald

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Australia’s head coach Andrew McDonald has revealed that his team will not play any practice matches before the much-anticipated Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Team India next year.

“We feel as though we’ve got enough time to immerse ourselves in those conditions. We won’t be taking on a practice game. It’ll just be more around the location,” he said, according to a report on cricket.com.au.

“We’ve got a couple of options there. We have gone to the UAE previously and we have also gone into India last time into Bangalore, so we’re just working through what that would look like in terms of how we then manage the individuals,” added the head coach.

In fact, he feels that a preparatory camp can help his team adapt to the conditions in India.

“Ultimately, if you can have a dedicated venue that you’re able to use and replicate as close to the conditions that you believe you may get in the first Test match or throughout a Test series, that’s ideally what you want. You case those locations – you want a connection in terms of conditions and climate. We believe we’ll get that right in terms of where we go, it just hasn’t been confirmed yet,” said McDonald.

Andrew McDonald calls for larger squads for ODI World Cup 2027

Earlier, the Australian head coach said that the International Cricket Council (ICC) should allow teams to carry more members in their squads with the increase in the number of matches for the ODI World Cup 2027.

“This is going to be a pinnacle event. I think there is an argument to say, great, you have put more games in front of us, give us larger squads, allow us to play the way that we need to play within those conditions, and then also you have got the ability to carry those potential stars of the game that are under injury clouds leading in because the cricket leading into the World Cup is demanding, so you are going to have some people that potentially are 50-50 at that point in time. So let us carry the best players in there. Give us larger squads to be able to navigate through the early part, and then hopefully the pinnacle event has the best players playing, rather than being ruled out early on due to injury and the attritional nature of a World Cup,” he said.

(With Inputs from Agencies)

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