In a road-map meeting for Indian cricket, the BCCI has decided to send an India A team before the start of any senior overseas tour. This team, under coach Rahul Dravid, will also have a few members of the Indian team, in a bid to get acclimatised ahead of an away tour, according to a report by The Indian Express.
This proposed new plan will begin with India’s next big tour, to England in June. Already, Committee of Administrators chief Vinod Rai had said Test specialists like Murali Vijay and Ajinkya Rahane will all land in England in June as a part of Rahul Dravid-coached India A side that will be playing a number of first-class games against county as well as England Lions (A) side. Captain Virat Kohli is also set to have a county cricket stint to prepare for the series.
This plan comes after India headed into the Test series in South Africa without any warm-up games and went down in the first two Tests.
A similar India A tour was also in the works for the Australia tour later this year, but the Cricket Australia declined, according to the report. India A will now tour New Zealand at the time to get some overseas match practise before the Border-Gavaskar trophy.
Apart from coach Rahul Dravid, the road-map meeting included India’s bowling coach Bharat Arun, batting coach Sanjay Bangar, as well as India U-19 support staff Paras Mhambrey and Abhay Sharma, along with former player Saba Karim, the new general manager of cricket operations of the BCCI.
