One of the two warm-up matches that Cricket Australia is trying to organise for the touring Indian team ahead of the Test matches in December could clash with the Twenty20 International series between the two teams in November, according to a report in Mumbai Mirror.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India had requested its Australian counterpart to schedule two warm-up matches for the Indian team ahead of the four-Test series starting on December 6. But because there are only 10 days separating the third and final T20I on November 25 and the first Test in Adelaide, one of the two warm-up games could coincide with the T20 series.
If this happens, India’s Test match specialists would play the four-day warm-up match, while the white-ball players would participate in the T20I series, the report said. The players who play both formats, such as captain Virat Kohli, KL Rahul and Jasprit Bumrah, are likely to play in the T20I series, the report added.
“It is happening, we have been assured of two warm-up games,” the report quoted a BCCI official as saying. “If we get a second match, which we are almost confident about, this is the plan,” the official added. Cricket Australia has not announced the dates for the warm-up games yet.
The Mumbai Mirror report also said that Test players such as Cheteshwar Pujara, Prithvi Shaw, Ajinkya Rahane, R Ashwin, Umesh Yadav, Hanuma Vihari, and Mohammad Shami will go to New Zealand with India A when the Indian team is playing the limited-overs series against West Indies in November.
