With the historic Test win in Cape Town, India have rounded off yet another overseas tour on a high note and will soon start gearing up for a busy home season that will start with the Afghanistan T20Is followed by a five-match Test series against England and then IPL.
India’s next overseas Test tour, as per the FTP, will be that of Australia and it will be held late into 2024 around November-December. In between, the team will be playing hosts to Bangladesh and New Zealand for Tests, all of them part of the ongoing WTC cycle.
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With plenty of time remaining before the Australia tour, batting legend Sunil Gavaskar has asked the Indian team management to learn from their previous mistakes to plan well ahead for the tough assignment.
In a column for Sportstar, Gavaskar has pointed out how in the past the absence of tour games in the lead up to such overseas tours have impacted how the team starts a series.
The latest example being the two-Test series in South Africa which ended 1-all after India bounced back from an innings defeat in Centurion.
“The defeat in Centurion is pretty much a pattern for Indian teams touring the SENA (South Africa, England, New Zealand, Australia) countries, where they lose the first Test of the series and then play catch-up for the remainder of the series,” Gavaskar wrote.
“The next big series overseas is exactly a year away in Australia, and if India needs to keep the winning momentum of the previous two tours there, then the planning must start now. The FTP suggests that India is playing two Tests against Bangladesh and three Tests against New Zealand at home from the end of September to early November,” he added.
In the past India captain Rohit Sharma has defended his side not playing tour games with the argument that the hosts tend to put weak teams and hence, they don’t make much difference.
Gavaskar though says that these matches can help the team settle into a rhythm.
“The first Test of a five-match series in Australia will likely start in early December, so it does give the Indians time to play a couple, if not more, first-class games before the series. Rohit said after the loss in Centurion that these games are no good because the host countries put up second-rate teams, and they get to play on slow pitches. Even if that is true, isn’t it better to get into a rhythm against such opposition than stay at home? Not only the batters can get some runs under their belts, but the bowlers can also go flat out and test themselves,” the batting legend wrote.
“With the relations between the two boards being good, it would make sense if the Indian cricket board wrote to its counterpart and asked for matches against their national champions or the ‘A’ team before the first Test,” he added.
Gavaksar has another suggestion to include practice matches in between the series to allow those who haven’t performed up to the mark alongside the reserves to get some game time.
“Then, in the week or so gap between the second and third Tests and between the fourth and fifth Tests, there could be another game so that the reserve players get to show their mettle. Those who haven’t gotten wickets or tons in the earlier Tests will also have an opportunity to get their form and rhythm back for the Tests to follow. The time to give in to what the seniors want is gone, for there have been no positive results. It’s time to simply think of the best for Indian cricket and not what suits a few individuals, however great they may be,” he said.
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