Former England captain Michael Vaughan has expressed his astonishment at India’s decision of not to play any warm-up match ahead of the series opener against Australia in Perth. The Indian management decided to have a match simulation at the WACA to tune up the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Earlier, they were scheduled to play an intra-squad match with India A team, but that was also scrapped as they opted for a match simulation.
When India last toured Australia in 2020/21, they played a warm-up match against Australia A before the first Test in Adelaide and also did the same during the 2018/19 campaign. Incidentally, India registered historic triumphs on both tours, but this time around, they decided to go with a different approach.
However, Vaughan isn’t very impressed with India’s plan and said there is not the same competitive mindset when the players take part in an intra-squad game as compared to a warm-up match against a domestic home team.
“I can’t get my head around a team like India only wanting to play an intra-squad game leading into a series against Australia in their own backyard,” Vaughan told Fox Cricket.
“I just can’t see how you get yourself in that competitive mindset of consequence by playing an intra-squad game. Time will tell,” he added.
The Indian batters are also going through a rough patch with the likes of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma struggling in the home season and young batters’ underwhelming show with the A team. It would have been a good opportunity for them if they got the chance to play a warm-up match ahead of the series.
The former English skipper suggested that India failed to get it right as they had a chance to get used to the Perth bounce if they played a warm-up match at WACA before they shift their bases to Optus Stadium.
“I’m surprised that this Indian side didn’t want at least one game of cricket, and the WACA’s the perfect venue because it’s a similar pitch to Optus (Stadium), so you get used to the bounce,” he added.
‘Current players have a different kind of mindset’
He further illuminated the difference in mindset between the current crop of players and the players of his time, who needed more games to get used to the conditions.
“These players have a different kind of mindset to what we had, whereas we probably needed more games,” he continued.
However, Vaughan is intrigued to see whether the Indian team will be ready to adapt to the Aussie conditions without playing any tour match, which he feels was necessary.
“They’re playing 12 months of the year and get straight into it, but it’ll be intriguing to see how both sets of players settle on that first day when they’re playing the longer form. The modern player maybe believes that they don’t need (tour matches). They think they get enough cricket throughout the year and they can react and just adapt. I just like to see teams win and stick a marker down.”