IND vs AUS: India turn only first-class fixture before Test series into a practice game

Kohli & Co insisted that they wanted to test all their players before the series. Hence, their tour match against Cricket Australia XI, which was scheduled to be a first-class affair, will now be a four-day practice match only

Just when everyone thought that Team India have learnt their lessons well from overseas Test series defeat in England and South Africa —and therefore finally decided to change their three-day game into a four-day first-class fixture before the first Adelaide Test—here comes the big spoiler.

India's tour match against Cricket Australia XI is simply a four-day practice match and not a first-class match. The difference between the two is that the visitors insisted that they wanted to test all their players before the series, and therefore wanted bowlers to bowl and batsmen to bat to provide better preparations before the Test series.

The latest development stumped Cricket Australia as well and made last-minute modifications after being touted as a first-class game. It has been a really long time since Team India has a played an official Tour game or a first-class fixture as was the norm traditionally before a Test series.

Virat and Co curtailed their three-day practice match into a two-day fixture and opted for extra practice sessions to prepare for the England series—a move that backfired and came in for a lot of flak. Now, Team India converted a three-day game into a four-day practice match to ensure that bowlers and batsmen get two stints at least under match conditions which weren't possible if it was a three-day or two-day game.

Team India's biggest problem is picking their opening batsmen with Prithvi Shaw being a certainty and seniors Murali Vijay and KL Rahul fighting for the other slot. Rahul flopped on two occasions while Vijay got a half-century against New Zealand A. Team India is hopeful that rain won’t play a major part in the only warm-up game that India has and all their batsmen to get two stints each in the middle.

Ishant Sharma and Mohammad Shami have also reached Sydney well before the game while the Tests specialists have been preparing for the series in the nets under the watchful eyes of Sanjay Bangar even as Virat were playing the T20 series.