Ind vs Aus: Steve Smith in tension before the start of India tour, told the big reason for not playing practice match

Sydney: Former Australia captain Steve Smith says his team is better off practicing alone rather than playing warm-up matches on “irrelevant” Indian pitches ahead of the four-Test Border-Gavaskar series. Australia has decided not to play a single warm-up match in India during the month-long Test series. The main reason for this is that the host nation would provide grass wickets for practice while spin-friendly pitches would be prepared for the actual matches.

Smith, who won the country’s men’s player of the year award for the fourth time in his career, said his team would benefit more from a net session than a practice match. The 18-member team, led by Pat Cummins, held a camp on spin-friendly pitches in Sydney ahead of the series and will have a week’s practice in Bengaluru ahead of the first Test starting on February 9 in Nagpur.

Team not playing any practice match

On Monday, before the team left for India, Smith said, ‘We usually play two practice matches in England. This time there is no practice match in India. Last time we were there (in India) I’m pretty sure we got a grass wicket for practice and it was irrelevant. Hopefully we will get really good training facilities where the ball is expected to do what it is expected to do on the pitch.

Smith beat Travis Head and David Warner to win the Allan Border Medal. Australia has been criticized for not including a warm-up match on the tour of India as it is an integral part of a longer series. Smith, however, said that a tougher net session would help the spinners practice better. He said, ‘It is better that we practice in our nets and spinners get a chance to bowl as much as they want.’ Smith’s team had to face a 1-2 defeat on the tour of India in 2017. He indicated that the decision was taken after a lot of thought.

tough to play in india

He said, ‘I think we have taken the right decision not to play the practice match. Like I said, last time they prepared a grass pitch for our practice and we hardly faced spinners so it is irrelevant. The Australian team had training sessions in Sydney last week on pitches which had cracks like the Indian ones. Smith said, ‘This is definitely a very big series. I’ve never won there, I’ve been there twice (for Tests), it’s always difficult to play there. There are some challenges ahead of us but the players are ready for it.

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