One of the primary reasons for the defeat that was spoken about was the lack of quality preparation ahead of both the series, and hence BCCI is now contemplating sending a few Test specialists to New Zealand along with the India ‘A’ squad in November to get prepared for the series Down Under.

While captain Virat Kohli shrugged off the necessity of warm-up matches, India coach Ravi Shastri had a different view, but also stressed on the fact that the international calendar is so tightly packed that there is hardly any time to play two or three warm-up matches prior to the Test series.

The itinerary for the Australia tour is already in place and that includes only one warm-up game (three-day) against Cricket Australia XI at SCG which might not be enough to get acclimatised, especially for players like Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara and Murali Vijay who play just the Test format.

It’s a good time to remember that India have never won a Test series on Australian shores and this series presents a wonderful opportunity for Kohli’s men. This could probably be one of the weakest Australian sides that will be playing at home because of the absence of two key batsmen in Steven Smith and David Warner, who are serving their one-year ban due to ball tampering scandal in South Africa earlier this year.

While the idea of sending players is a step in the right direction to achieve more success outside the sub-continent, is the BCCI’s decision of sending them to New Zealand to prepare for the Australian series a good one?

I don’t think so and here are the three reasons why it’s not a good idea.

#1 Pitches are vastly different

Even if New Zealand is the closest to Australia in terms of geographical location, the pitch conditions in those two countries are very dissimilar in nature. The 22 yards in New Zealand is soft underneath with a spattering of grass, while it’s rock hard and more straw coloured in Australia.

The ball moves off the wicket as well as in the air for the most part of the day in New Zealand, but the surfaces in Australia in recent times have been pretty flat with hardly any movement off the seam. The adjustment that the batsmen will have to make on Australian surfaces is in terms of the bounce.

#2 Weather conditions

The overhead conditions play a huge role in how the wickets are prepared and impacts the bowling conditions to a great extent, albeit on the same 22 yards.

When the India A squad travel to New Zealand in November, the weather will be much cooler than what the Indian team would experience in Australia a month later, which is the actual summer in that part of the world.

#3 Ground sizes

The other major difference between the two countries is the size of the ground. While it is small in New Zealand, the playing surface is quite big in Australia.

One of the key aspects to scoring runs in Australia is running between the wickets and that’s where visiting teams struggle to convert those twos into three’s which is a regular feature while the home side is batting.

Indians might get used to scoring boundaries in New Zealand where there won’t be much running as getting a three in those grounds is almost impossible. Indian batsmen should get used to running lots of twos and three’s, sometimes even all four to build their innings.

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