BGT: Vaughan baffled at India’s decision to skip warm-up matches

I just can't see how you get yourself in that competitive mindset of consequence by playing an intra-squad game, says former England captain Michael Vaughan

Sydney: Baffled by India’s decision to head into the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia without a warm-up game, former England captain Michael Vaughan raised concerns about how the tourists would get into a “competitive mindset” without match practice.

India decided against playing a match against an Australian domestic side in the run up to the five-match Test series, starting in Perth from November 22, marking a departure from their approach on the previous two tours of Australia.

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“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.” But India have also called off their scheduled three-day intra-squad match with their ‘A’ team. They have instead opted to focus on centre-wicket training at the WACA in Perth.

The Indian think tank believed that the bounce of the WACA centre strip closely mirrors that of the Perth Stadium pitch. As a result, they felt it would be beneficial for all top-order batters to spend more time in the middle.

“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,” Vaughan said.

Australia had also skipped warm-up matches before last year’s Test tours of India and England, citing issues with scheduling and a lack of trust in local curators as contributing factors. “These players have a different kind of mindset to what we had, whereas we probably needed more games,” Vaughan continued.