Tour game not needed before India series: McDonald

MELBOURNE: Australia head coach Andrew McDonald is confident that its “no tour game” policy on overseas tours will serve it well in the four match Test series in India in February-March.

Australia is unlikely to play any tour matches ahead of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and would arrive in India just a week before the first Test, beginning in Nagpur on February 9.

“The stress would be on preserving mental and physical freshness rather than arriving early to play a warm-up game and acclimatise to the conditions,” said McDonald.

Australia is aiming for its first series win in India in 19 years. “No tour game is something we’ve done in the last few series, before embarking on overseas tours,” McDonald said .

“We feel we don’t need that match practice as such. We’re going to India about a week out from the first game. We didn’t want to press for too much longer, in terms of the preparation.”

A similar approach was successful when it won a three-match series in Pakistan with a 1-0 margin in March last year.

“We had some success doing that, going to Pakistan. We had a shortened period on the ground there.” This time, it has planned a three-day camp in Sydney for all players not involved in the Big Bash League finals before embarking on the gruelling tour.

“We can be creative in our own conditions. We’ve done it before with the Pakistan build-up in Melbourne. Dusting up wickets. Fit for purpose.

“We feel as though we can get as close to that as possible without necessarily having a practice game,” added McDonald.

The Aussies had last won the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in India under Adam Gilchrist in 2004-05.